Tech News Today
Tech News Today, or TNT for short, is a netcast dedicated to discussing the most important stories of the day in conversation with the world's leading journalists. The netcast is one of many from the TWiT Network. The show premiered on June 1, 2010, and features guests who are journalists that report the big news stories. It was originally hosted by Tom Merritt for the first 912 episodes of the show. On December 5, 2013, Chief TWiT Leo Laporte announced in a blog post on the TWiT website, that Tom would not be returning to the show due to Laporte wanting an "in studio host/news director." You can watch the show LIVE Weekdays at 10:00 A.M. PST at live.twit.tv
History
Tech News Today was started by Tom Merritt, Becky Worley, Erik Lanigan, and Leo Laporte (although Laporte was only there for the first episode). Sarah Lane joined the show as co-host on Mondays and Fridays and started working every day on the show after Worley left the show in March 2011. Lane's last Tech News Today show was episode 941 and she went on to host Tech News 2Night, TWiT's evening news show every weeknight @ 4 P.M. PST. Iyaz Akhtar also joined the show as a guest in episode 4 and joined as a co-host on episode 209. Akhtar's last Tech News Today show was episode 911 and he went on to become Senior Editor at CNET. Jason Howell joined Tech News Today at episode 83. Howell's last Tech News Today was episode 1122. He went on to replace Chad Johnson, becoming "Laporte's producer," producing the popular This Week in Tech, MacBreak Weekly, This Week in Google, and Triangulation netcasts. The show is now hosted by Mike Elgan who joined Tech News Today at episode 913, and rotating co-anchors. Episode 1 of TNT appeared on June 1, 2010. Tech News Today is shown through a live video feed along with many of the rest of the TWiT network shows.
Tom moving to Los Angeles
Tom Merritt moved to Los Angeles, CA to accommodate his wife Eileen Rivera's new job at YouTube. Fortunately though, Tech News Today was able to continue on with Merritt being a Skype host. Episode 671 is when Merritt did his first show as a host via Skype in his new home studio in Los Angeles, CA.
Illustrations
Len Peralta a graphic artist, illustrator, and cartoonist joined Tech News Today at Episode 756 on Fridays to illustrate the show. The drawings would then go up to Peralta's web site for sale at lenperalta.com.
Original format
The show featured three segments during the Merritt era of Tech News Today: The News Fuse where each host talked AbOUT the top stories of that day for around 5 minutes (this was followed by an ad read), Tom Merritt would then welcome the guest(s) on that show to dig deeper into the news of the day and talk about/analyze it and the Randomizer were the audience decided based on a Strawpoll what the final interesting/comedic/weird tech news story was going to be. Mike Elgan had a similar structure at the start of his reign with Top News replacing The News Fuse, The Conversation, and In Other News replacing the Randomizer. This format was quickly replaced with focusing on merging them all into one segment.
Former hosts
- Tom Merritt (until December 30, 2013...episode 912)
- Becky Worley (until March 29, 2011...episode 209)
- Erik Lanigan as Producer (until September 26, 2010...episode 82)
- Sarah Lane (until February 10, 2014...episode 941)
- Darren Kitchen (Mondays and Fridays until December 30, 2013...episode 912)
- Iyaz Akhtar (until December 18, 2013...episode 905) (started episode 209...March 29, 2011)
- Len Peralta (Fridays until December 20, 2013...episode 907) (started episode 756...May 17, 2013)
Shows
All previous shows can be found at twit.tv/tnt.
Contact
You can contact the show by e-mailing tnt@twit.tv or by calling and leaving a voicemail at (260) TNT-SHOW.
Awards
Tech News Today was the Recipient of the 2012 International Academy of Web Television award for Best News Web Series. Tech News Today was also named Best of 2010 in Podcasts by iTunes Rewind.
See also
- Tech News 2Night
- TWiT.tv