NewsNation will be at the center of news media this week, with the network hosting the fourth Republican debate on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET in the University of Alabama’s Frank Moody Music Building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

For some tuning into the debate, it could be the first time they watch NewsNation programming. After the rebranding that allowed the network to launch in 2021, host Blake Burman notes the reaction he receives from viewers who have begun watching the network.

“Perhaps the most refreshing thing for me has been in the last few months how people have said to me a version of this: I just started to watch NewsNation, please keep doing what you’re doing,” Burman told TV Newser. 

“There is an audience out there that really just wants the news, that wants to see what’s going on, and hear from both sides when it comes to the latest events and when the conversations turn to politics.”

As a result, Burman doesn’t want his show to be like other networks where there’s tribalism. 

“One of my goals on The Hill is to try to give the audience a slice of what’s happening inside Washington, but also what’s going on outside the Washington bubble,” Burman added. “You’re going to hear from newsmakers, lawmakers, and panelists from both sides of the political aisle. 

“We don’t do the tribal group think. Rather, one of my goals is to make sure our audience gets a sense of what’s going on in the political arena and a feel for why we find it interesting. I can tell you this much: I am constantly listening throughout the show, because I am often hearing something for the first time I didn’t know before. I hope the audience gets a sense of that as well.”

Newsmax clashed with the Republican National Committee over co-sponsoring a GOP presidential primary debate.

Axios reported that the RNC offered Newsmax as the junior partner to ABC News for the third debate after Fox News and Fox Business hosted the first two.

Nonetheless, executives hesitated to be a junior partner with a mainstream media outlet and thought the $2 million the RNC required the network to spend on the event was extreme. Eventually, that debate resulted in NBC News and Salem Media Group working together on the third debate.

Moreover, Newsmax was approached again to host the Republican debate. The RNC came to Newsmax to be the primary sponsor for the fourth GOP debate, which will take place in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Wednesday that ultimately went to NewsNation.

Still, the economics might have been an issue, as Newsmax would have had to spend approximately $4 million to produce the debate if they hosted it.

When the RNC announced that NewsNation would sponsor the fourth debate, it left the executives at Newsmax fuming as they were still searching for an additional sponsor to split the costs.

Axios obtained an email showing that executives from the conservative cable outlet were aware that the costs would vary based on the nature of the sponsors’ partnership, despite their belief that the RNC had changed the terms of their agreement.

Last week, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough raised eyebrows with his criticism that if Donald Trump is re-elected President in 2024, he’ll imprison and executive his political enemies. Fox News host Mark Levin took issue with the encapsulation.

During his Life, Liberty & Levin weekend program, Levin argued that Joe Scarborough’s statements were part of a larger issue in media circles.

“If you listen to the American media — which are basically propagandists for the Democrat party and the Biden machine — you would think that Donald Trump is Hitler. No, worse than Hitler. That he wants to execute and imprison everybody,” Levin said. “And if he’s not Hitler, he’s Stalin. And if he’s not Stalin, he’s Mussolini. He’s all these horrid things, and we know this to be the case because Joe Scarborough says so. And whatever Joe Scarborough says is very, very crucial.”

Mark Levin then argued that Trump and his family — which includes a Jewish son-in-law, daughter, and grandchildren — has a long history of supporting the religion and its followers in New York City, despite recent arguments from political opponents,

“So the American media, which is so detestable and unconscionable, and so totally immoral, tries to turn Donald Trump into an anti-Semite, Jew-hater,” Levin concluded, “when in fact, he has spent his entire life supporting Jews and Jewish causes, as had his father.”