Janelle Rodriguez

Janelle Rodriguez is NBC News’ Executive Vice President of Programming, overseeing the network’s 24/7 streaming news network NBC News NOW, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and the News Specials team. Rodriguez joined NBC News in January 2015. 

Under Rodriguez’s leadership, NBC News NOW has become the fastest-growing streaming news network in the U.S. Each year, NBC News NOW has delivered double-digit growth and it’s on pace to finish 2023 as its best year ever. Distributed across more than 20 platforms, NBC News NOW recently expanded with linear distribution and launched its afternoon news program, NBC News Daily, on NBC, which is now the #1 afternoon news program on television.  

Additionally, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt continues to be a top five program on all of television each week and is experiencing its best start of the 2023-2024 season in four years.

Also in 2023, Rodriguez was responsible for the production of the third Republican primary debate, hosted by NBC News. It was widely praised by critics across the political spectrum and was the highest-rated program on television that night. She also produced nearly 100 special reports across the network and NBC News NOW.

Before joining NBC News, Rodriguez served as Vice President of Programming for CNN, where she led all dayside and weekend programming for the network. At CNN, she was credited with directing award-winning coverage of many breaking news events and for driving greater collaboration. Variety honored Rodriguez as a Daytime TV Impact Honoree in 2013.  
 
In 2023, Rodriguez was honored on Variety Women’s Impact Report for her work across NBC News NOW and NBC Nightly News, as well as being named to the 2023 Out100 list and CableFax’s Diversity List. In 2022, Rodriguez was included on Fast Company’s Queer 50 List and CableFax’s Pride List and was also awarded the Latino Leaders’ Maestro Award. 

Rodriguez has won five Emmy Awards for coverage of January 6, Election Night and Hosni Mubarak stepping down as President of Egypt in 2011. She also earned Peabody Awards for reporting of the Gulf Oil Spill, the 2008 presidential primary campaigns, and for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and was part of the CNN team that won an Alfred I. DuPont Award for coverage of the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2005.  Rodriguez led all of CNN’s cross-platform coverage of the 2011 Royal Wedding, resulting in a Shorty Award for Best Use of Video in a Social Media Campaign. 

Rodriguez holds a Bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Production from San Francisco State University.