Announcing the Window and Inviting the CEO to the Buffet: How MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace Set Up NBC’s Ukraine Fundraiser

On Sunday, July 3, NBC will air a Primetime special that hopes to raise money for victims of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Special, Ukraine: answer the call, airs on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC Sunday at 7pm, with scheduled guests for Paul McCartney, Billy Elish, Cheryl Crow, John Batiste, Alicia Keys, Simu Liu and others. Ben Stiller, who recently visited Ukraine, will appear. Ukrainian President Zelensky will also appear.

But what viewers at home may not realize is that it was specially prepared by MSNBC. Deadline: White House Guide Nicole Wallace as she lines up at the Chick-fil-A drive-thru. Wallace is the executive producer of Special Ops.

Wallace covered the invasion daily on his show, and developed sources in the country, including Igor Novikov, a former adviser to Zelensky, who at one point came up with the idea for a song like “We Are the World.” Ukraine (“We Are the World” is a famous 1985 single that raised money for famine victims in Africa). A few weeks later, Zelensky appeared at the Grammy Awards, where he asked for support from the music community.

Wallace was in the aforementioned car this spring with his 10-year-old son, his wife (New York Times Reporter Michael Schmidt, they were only married for a few weeks) and their two dogs when it all fell into place.

“After President Zelensky addressed the Grammy Awards, I started thinking, ‘We are the world,'” Wallace said. the hollywood reporterShe remembers turning to her husband in the car and saying, “Do you think I can make ‘We Are the World’ for Ukraine?”

Hearing what he said was a bit of a stretch and certainly not out of his comfort zone, but Wallace said he had a bullet to help him put the project together.

“I know exactly one music star. I know [country music star] “Brad Paisley and I called him at 9 am and said if he wanted to try to do ‘We Are the World, would you help me?’” recalls Paisley.

“I trust everyone who can convince me that it was worth bringing someone else to me,” said Wallace. “On the first day I noticed that no one said ‘no’. Nobody wanted to help. Not everyone was able to do this in 8 weeks, but everyone wanted help. ”

In the context of a growing industry, Wallace needed to figure out where the special would work. Luckily for him, he had a pre-existing lunch with NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell at the company’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

“I told him, ‘What do you think this lunch is, it’s something else,’” Wallace said. “And he smiled somehow. We were still getting food at the buffet.”

He explained the concept to her and she immediately bought it.

“He said, ‘Well, why don’t you get airtime and do an hour of musical performances before the music?'” she says.

Eventually, the idea for the original song was ruined (the 8 week window with the special connection was completed in no time), but the special life goes on.

However, there was one final piece of the puzzle: convincing Zelensky to participate. The president of Ukraine sporadically participates in some cultural events in an attempt to gain support. The Grammy ceremony was great and he also spoke at the Cannes Film Festival. Zelensky is, of course, a former comedian and actor, while his chief of staff, Andrei Ermak, is a former filmmaker. Wallace gives them a taste of the power of pop culture. Zelensky and his team bought Wallace Square.

“They know more than anyone about this side of the business, the power of culture and entertainment, and the soft levers of power,” Wallace said, adding that the team producing the special “had to prove themselves” to the management of the show. Zelensky.

“I’m not known in this space and it wasn’t something that existed before, so we had to assure them that it would be high quality and worthwhile,” said Wallace.