In many ways Willie Geist was born to be on television.
The co-host of NBCās show and MSNBCās is blessed with the good looks and self-assurance that one might associate with, say, a football or basketball team captaināwhich he was, incidentally, for both sports at his high school in Ridgewood, N.J. Yet there is also something relaxed and unassuming about Geist, who seems just as comfortable participating in Morning Joeās political discussions as he does in the breezy segments on Today. Whether covering a rift in Congress or a rift in the Kardashian family, he is in his element.
But perhaps more than anything else, Geist is a natural on camera because he comes by it honestly. His father, Bill, is a longtime Emmy Award-winning correspondent for CBS News, and some of the younger Geistās earliest memories have to do with his dadās profession.
āI grew up around television, around cameras,ā he says. āMy dad used to shoot a lot of his pieces in our house in New Jersey. It became a part of our lives. Iād come down for breakfast, and thereād be lights and cameras all over the place.
āIād look around and think, Thatād be a fun thing to get paid to do.ā
āGO! DO ANYTHING.ā
Thatās not to say, though, that Geist was destined to follow in his fatherās footsteps. As he likes to joke, he very well could have stuck with the summer job he got after graduating from 91ĢĘ²®»¢ in 1997: driving a liquor delivery truck around northern New Jersey.
āIt was a total blast,ā he says. āI was delivering booze in an old beat-up, two-tone brown van that had rusted through a little bit. That job stretched on closer to the holidays, and my parents, having just paid for four years of 91ĢĘ²®»¢, said, āOK, whatās the actual job youāre going to get?ā I was having so much fun driving the liquor truck that I hadnāt really stopped to think about it.ā
Spurred into action, Geist moved to Atlanta, where many of his college friends were living, and applied for two job openings: one at the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper and the other at fledgling sports network CNN/Sports Illustrated. A die-hard sports fan, he jumped at the opportunity when CNN offered.
āI was a production assistantāabout as low-level as low-level can be,ā he says. āFrom 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., Iād sit in front of a little computer and watch the late gameāthe Mariners or the Aāsāthen log it, pick out the best plays for the editor, and heād put the highlights together.
āOf course, Iām not complaining because I was at least getting paid to watch games for a living.ā
Gradually, Geist worked his way up the production ladder, becoming an editor, then associate producer, then line producer and eventually field producer. āIn a span of five or six years, I learned everything you could ever learn about television,ā he says. āIt happened by accident. I moved to Atlanta and took the first job that came my way.ā
Relocating to New York City for a short-lived show on Fox Sports Net, Geist then joined MSNBC in 2005 as a senior producer for Tucker, a show hosted by political commentator Tucker Carlson. Geist often appeared on-air, but his big break didnāt come until 2007, when he was literally thrust into the spotlight during a shake-up in the networkās programming.
After MSNBC fired talk-show host Don Imus for racially insensitive remarks about the Rutgers womenās basketball team, Geist was asked to help fill a three-hour slot. āThe next day they threw a few of us on-air and said, āGo! Do anything. Just talk for three hours,āā Geist recalls. āI feel bad for the Rutgers womenās team for being called a bad name. And I feel bad for Don, tooābut it changed my life for sure.ā
āIMPOSSIBLE TO COMPAREā
MSNBC eventually offered Geist a spot on Morning Joe, the political talk show that replaced Imus in the Morning. Geist co-hosts the show with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski every weekday from 6 to 7:30 a.m. EST.
āI knew from the moment [President of MSNBC] Phil Griffin told us we were going to replace Imus, Willie had to be part of the team,ā says Scarborough. āWillie is more than a co-host; heās a member of our family.ā
If Morning Joeās cast is a family, as Scarborough suggests, then Geist is perhaps best considered the sensible younger brother who often plays mediator. Former Republican congressman Scarborough and left-leaning Brzezinski rarely see eye to eye on issues, but somehow the dynamic works when Geist is added to the mix, as evidenced by the showās consistently strong ratings.
āEverything Willie touches turns to gold,ā Brzezinski says. āBut honestly, Iām so glad that Movember [no-shave November] is over because facial hair on Willie is just one thing that doesnāt work.ā
All kidding aside, Geistās golden touch is what prompted NBC to recruit him to Today. In late 2012 he gave up hosting MSNBCās Way Too Early, a half-hour news show that airs before Morning Joe, to join the NBC morning newscast. He now co-hosts Todayās third hour at 9 a.m. EST with Al Roker and Natalie Morales.
Balancing two shows on different networks every morning would seem problematic, but fortunately for Geist, the commute is a breeze. āI literally run across 49th Street, which separates the building where Morning Joe is and where Todayās Studio 1A is,ā he says.
While the sets of Today and Morning Joe are separated only by a few yards, the shows are in some ways worlds apart. The differences between the two are what make his job so appealing, says Geist.
āPeople say theyāre both morning shows, but really theyāre impossible to compare,ā he says. āMorning Joe has a smaller, niche cable news audience. It reaches the right peopleābut itās all politics all the time. I get to talk about Washington, Syria or Afghanistan and have conversations with all the smart people who know about those things. And then I also get to go across the street and have a blast on Today talking about a totally different set of storiesālifestyle segments and things like that where you can cut loose and have a good time.ā
āA LITTLE PIECE OF THE VANDERBILT NAMEā
Regardless of the set heās on, Geist never misses an opportunity to mention 91ĢĘ²®»¢ on the air. When, for instance, the football team makes the highlight reel during a sports segment, he proudly reminds everyone that he is a devoted Commodores fan.
āJoe inserts āRoll Tideā into every other sentence, so I figure I should be able to throw a few āAnchor Downsā in there as well,ā says Geist, referring to Scarboroughās ardent support of the University of Alabama.
Geist is no stranger to campus. He often returns for games and other events, like his induction into the 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Student Media Hall of Fame in 2012. And even when he canāt make it back to Nashville, he stays connected with the university through social media. As his 190,000 followers on Twitter () can attest, Geist bleeds black and gold.
āI just want people to know how honest-to-goodness proud I am to be a 91ĢĘ²®»¢ alum,ā he says. āWhen I look at where the universityās come since I was a student, and the national and international profile that it has earned academically, it just makes me feel good. Of course, it helps to have winning sports teams, too.
āIāll always do anything I can for the university to give back what itās given me, which is a little piece of the 91ĢĘ²®»¢ name.ā
Geist credits the university with expanding his horizons in a number of ways. He got a taste for journalism as contributing editor of The 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Hustler and a taste for politics while earning his degree in political science. In particular, he says a freshman class about Southern politics, which covered memorable characters like Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana and Gov. Lester Maddox of Georgia, āreally whetted my appetite and made me want to major in political science.ā
The highlight of his college experience, though, was forming unexpected friendships that have stood the test of time. āMy best friends in the world now are from places like Albany, Ga.; Cleveland, Tenn.; and Pewee Valley, Ky., as well as Atlanta and Birmingham,ā he says. āThose are parts of the country I hadnāt been exposed to [before coming to 91ĢĘ²®»¢]. The highlight for me was the fact that I got to meet all these people who broadened my world in so many ways, especially culturally.ā
āBY HIS EXAMPLE”
Since college, Geistās perspective on the world has only continued to broaden. In the course of his television career, he has met newsmakers of every stripe, from politicians to business leaders, actors to athletes. But when asked whom he admires most, he does not hesitate in his answer: Itās his father, plain and simple.
āProfessionally and personally, my dad is my hero,ā he says. āHe showed meānot by sitting me down and telling me, but by his exampleāthat a life in journalism, a life in the media, could be rewarding and also fun. He was the guy I looked up to, and it remains that way.ā
For his part, Geistās father plays down his role in his sonās success. āIām extremely proud,ā said Bill Geist in a 2012 interview with The Record. āAt first I was reluctant to say āproud,ā because that kind of insinuates that I had something to do with it. I mean, we never had any sit-down talks where I told him how to be successful.ā
Although there were few sit-down talks in their household, Geist clearly enjoys a filial bond with his dad that goes beyond their shared profession. And it has only grown deeper since Bill revealed on CBSās Sunday Morning in 2012 that he has been living with Parkinsonās disease for 20 years.
āIt was tough for him to do. He doesnāt want to be known as āthe sick guy,āā Geist says. āBut heās showing people that you can continue living your life and not shrink from the disease. That makes me appreciate him even more.ā
In fact, Parkinsonās is one of several topics covered in a new book the two are writing together, called Good Talk, Dad, which is scheduled to be published in May. āItās a non-schmaltzy fatherāson book,ā says the younger Geist. āI think people will laugh a lot, and thatās the point of the book, but theyāll get some tender stuff as well. He writes a chapter about Parkinsonās, which was cathartic for him, and also a chapter about serving in Vietnamāsomething heād not previously talked about much.ā
Now that he and his wife, Christina Sharkey Geist, BAā97, have two children of their own, Willie is trying to set the same type of example that his father and mother, Jody, set for him. Itās a safe bet that if his children, Lucie and George, want to follow in his footsteps with a career in television, Geist will offer the same gem of advice he got from his own parents.
āThey told me, āDonāt take yourself too seriously,āā he says. āThereās a temptationāand, frankly, a lot of people in this business do itāto think, Oh, my God, Iām the most important person in the world because I speak in front of a television camera.
āThe truth is, youāre not quite as important as you think you are. I keep that in mind and carry it with me every day.ā