Brittany Noble is about to begin her second week as anchor of “The Breakdown,” a daily live news show led by a former local TV news anchor on Roland Martin’s Black Star Network.
After starting his career in tiny Jonesboro, Arkansas (KAIT-TV), which ranks No. 182 on Nielsen’s list of 210 television markets nationwide, Noble has worked as a news anchor and correspondent for local television stations in St. Louis (KMOV-TV), Indianapolis (WISH-TV), Jackson, Mississippi (WJTV-TV) and Jackson, Tennessee (WBBJ-TV).
But the fact that her new show is part of the expanding lineup of Martin’s fully independent Black Star Network is a deal that brings Noble full circle to where her journalism career began in 2014. She was working as a reporter in St. Louis when the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man near Ferguson, Missouri, made headlines. “The Breakup with Brittany Noble” will be streamed live Monday through Friday at noon ET on the Black Star Network app and on Martin’s YouTube page.
Noble and Martin knew each other through their work with the National Association of Black Journalists. At the time, Martin was covering news on TV One and Tom Joyner’s long-running syndicated daily radio show. When the controversy surrounding Brown’s death was at its height, Martin called Noble into his segment and had him report on the ground about the shooting and the protests that erupted afterward.
“For years now, Roland has been in my corner defending Black-owned media,” Noble told Variety. “It takes a lot of money and investment to put on a show. You might have a good idea, but you didn’t have the backing to execute it.”
The Black Star Network is powered by Martin’s daily news, roundtable and commentary series “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” which is distributed through YouTube and the Black Star app. Launched in 2020, the outlet has expanded with other lifestyle and news analysis programs. But “The Breakdown” is the first traditional news hour dedicated to a combination of the latest headlines and newsmaker interviews, trends and a final lifestyle corner that Noble has dubbed “For Culture.”
Noble spoke candidly about being one of the estimated 300,000 black women who lost their jobs last year. Being able to adapt traditional news training to new formats and platforms to bring news and information to millions of viewers is truly her dream job.
“I feel free now. I feel free because I can actually share these stories. I felt trapped in local news, not being able to share news that affects my community,” Noble says. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a press conference and tried to tell a story and been shut out. And I had internalized that because I knew there were stories that people needed to know and things that we weren’t sharing that we needed to share with people. So now I’m able to maintain my professionalism because that’s what we do as journalists, as news anchors. But I feel free in the sense that I’m finally able to bring this information to the community.”
Noble began headlining and guest hosting “Roland Martin Unfiltered” ahead of the Jan. 26 launch of “The Breakdown With Brittany Noble.” Noble is based in Indianapolis and “Roland Martin Unfiltered” is based in Washington, DC. Martin’s YouTube page has grown significantly over the past 18 months and currently has 1.9 million followers.
“The Breakdown With Brittany Noble” represents “an evolution in digital news tailored to audiences who want both depth and context,” said Martin, founder and CEO of Black Star Network. “Our community has shown time and time again that they are not just viewers, but participants in the national conversation. Brittany will provide her insights with precision, honesty, and passion.”
Noble doggedly pursued his own shows on various local television news outlets. But at a time when solid reporting and debunking misinformation are more important than ever, she feels firmly in the right place to reach far beyond a single region of the country. She first experienced the power of social media 10 years ago when she posted a report on Michael Brown on Instagram that never aired on TV.
“When I was a local TV newscaster, I noticed that my co-workers weren’t watching me on TV,” Noble says. “What I was thinking about was how do I get this information to the people who need it, and how do I make it something they want to participate in? For me, it was easy to switch to digital because we all have our phones in our hands. We’re all on YouTube, and we’re all instantly searching for things that are important to us.”
In 2014, at the height of the Brown protests, “I actually used Instagram to record his mother’s plea, and it went viral on social media. So I thought, Okay, this is a way that we can really get the news to the public in real time.”
Debuting as an independent series in 2018, “Roland Martin Unfiltered” provides lively daily discussions of news, politics and opinion on themes relevant to the disparate Black community. Panelists will be appearing one after another to discuss and provide incisive commentary. Noble’s midday live stream is archived for on-demand viewing via YouTube and the Black Star platform, but it’s more of a fact-only format. She conducts long one-on-one interviews, but approaches them with the attitude of letting go of an anchor.
“I’m not a commentator. I’m more like a news anchor who’s here to present the facts and be unbiased, so I’m not going to be on the panel,” Noble said. “The last segment of the program is “For the Culture.” Are you an entrepreneur? Are you an author? Does it need our attention? Just like we want anything for our culture,” she says.
Noble’s goal is to make “The Breakdown” as inclusive as possible to the Black community, especially at a time of civil rights rollbacks, anti-DEI campaigns, and efforts to undo centuries of progress.
“I want this show to be a community effort. I want the community to get involved. If you’re an expert and you have research that we need to know, please share it with us,” Noble says. “If you have a new story you’d like us to look into, or you think it’s worthy of attention, please send it to us.”
In her second week on the anchor desk, Noble admitted she was “still in shock that I got promoted to this level and got to share the news.” “This is something I’ve always dreamed of and it’s really surreal to actually make it happen.”
Noble is quick to emphasize his respect and appreciation for the platform Martin has built, including “Roland Martin Unfiltered.” The show debuted on YouTube and other social platforms in 2018 after independent cable station TV One pulled the plug on the news division that Martin had led.
“When he started the Black Star Network, he told me, and the other journalists at NABJ, that he was building this for us, and we didn’t believe it,” Noble says. “We couldn’t figure it out.”
Now preparing for the second week of “The Breakdown,” Noble is already experiencing the vitality of independent journalism presented in a modern, accessible format.
“I’m not just reporting to an audience in Tennessee, or Indianapolis or St. Louis or a lot of other cities that I’ve worked in. Now it doesn’t matter where you are or where you live. This is something you can turn on and take information away from,” she says.
