Meet the Press is a weekly American television Sunday Morning program from NBC News. It is the longest-running program in American television history. The program debut on November 6, 1947, and the first host was Martha Roundtree. She stepped down on November 1, 1953, and was succeeded by Ned Brooks on November 8, 1953. Brooks would remain as moderator on the program until his retirement on December 26, 1965. On New Year's Day, January 1, 1966, the program's co-creator, Laurence Spivak took over as moderator from his role as a permanent panelist, and retired on November 9, 1975, on a special one-hour edition of the program that featured a sitting U.S. President as guest for the first time, in this case was Gerald Ford. One week later, on November 16, 1975, Bill Monroe, another former permanent panelist became moderator for the program, which he would remain until June 2, 1984. Then, Roger Mudd and Marvin Kalb became co-moderators of the program for just one year. Then in 1985, Kalb became moderator, and he would remain until he was replaced by Chris Wallace in 1987, and remain until 1988. In January 1989, Garrick Utley became moderator, he would remain in that role until December 1, 1991. On December 8, 1991, Tim Russert started hosting the program, and went on to become the longest-serving host in the history of the program. After his final broadcast on June 8, 2008, Russert died of a sudden coronary thrombosis just 5 days later. Former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw hosted a special edition of the program on June 15, 1998, which was dedicated to the life of Russert, in which Russert's chair was left empty as a tribute. One week later on June 22, 2008, Brian Williams acted as moderator of the first show following Russert's death. Then, Brokaw became the interim moderator of the program up until the 2008 U.S. general elections. He followed Russert's traditional by signing off with "We'll be back next Sunday because if it's Sunday, its Meet the Press." Brokaw remained as interim moderator until his final broadcast on December 7, 2008. David Gregory began his tenure as moderator of the program on December 14, 2008. On May 2, 2010, the program became the last NBC News program to be broadcast in high-definition, which had a new set introduced, along with video screens featured and library-style bookshelves. Gregory's last program was on August 10, 2014, in which he would leave NBC News. A week later, on August 17, 2014, Andrea Mitchell became interim moderator up until August 31, 2014. Chuck Todd began his run as moderator of the program on September 7, 2014 until his final broadcast on the program on September 10, 2023. Kristen Welker began the host on September 17, 2023, becoming just the second female moderator in the program's history.