NBC Reporter Quits Job To Interview Passengers As A Lyft Driver Instead

By Gwendolyn Purdom in News on Jul 25, 2016 7:50PM

When TV reporters typically hit the street for a story, it's to shoot a live shot from the field. When former NBC weekend morning news anchor Anthony Ponce hits the street next month it will be as a full-time driver for Lyft—and as a rogue reporter experimenting with a new, potentially promising, journalism model.

Two weeks after Robert Feder reported that Ponce was leaving NBC after being passed over for a promotion, Ponce posted a video titled "Why I Quit NBC: The Full Story" to his Facebook page Sunday night describing his unconventional next career move. In it, Ponce can be seen lugging his post-quitting desk box down the street after his last NBC broadcast Sunday as on-screen text explains his plans to continue his work as a storyteller by recording passenger interviews for a new podcast he's calling "Backseat Rider."

"I want this to be not only informative and topical but also fun and entertaining, and most importantly authentic," Ponce told Chicagoist Monday. "Everyone has an interesting story to tell. It’s just a matter of drawing those stories out of them."

Ponce has already heard quite a few interesting stories. After the idea to combine ride-hailing and reporting struck him in February, he waited to make sure the city ordinance that might have pushed ride-hailing companies out of Chicago didn't pass, then reached out to Lyft to make sure his recording passenger interviews plan would fly. Once they gave him the green light (as long as the passengers were OK with it), he signed up to participate in the company's Express Drive program that provides drivers with a car once they hit a certain amount of rides a week. He's now been driving for Lyft in his spare time and testing out his reporting model for four months. Topics of conversation have ranged from gun control (Ponce says he was particularly impressed by a long discussion he had with an AR-15 assault rifle owner) to personal brushes with the paranormal. So far, only one passenger has declined a backseat interview, Ponce said.

"I wanted to gauge whether people would open up to me and answer my questions and it was interesting because I would say that 95 percent of the people want to open up," he said. "It's a strangely intimate environment."

Ponce says that, starting in August, he plans to do at least one episode every two weeks for the next six months to see where the project leads (with a wife and new baby at home, the six month timeline is also Ponce's way of seeing whether this new venture will be able to support him and his family).

"I'm as scared as I am excited," he said.

Chicago TV broadcasting runs in the family for Ponce, who started at NBC in 2007. His brother Dan Ponce (whom Anthony has been known to jam with at local music venues on occasion) is the morning news anchor at WGN-Channel 9, while their dad Phil Ponce hosts "Chicago Tonight" on WTTW. Dan, Phil and other family members have so far been nervous about the risk Ponce is taking with this project, but also supportive of his decision, he said.

Before "Backseat Rider" launches, Ponce says he's still facing something of a learning curve as he'll be doing all the editing himself but he's eager to get the show out there so he can get feedback on the kinds of stories Chicagoans want to hear. Social media, he says, will play a big part in the questions he asks and the thematic direction he takes different episodes. So far, it looks like he shouldn't have any trouble engaging Twitter or Facebook users: as of Monday afternoon, Ponce's "Why I Quit" video had already racked up 474,000 views.

As far as what those themes and topics might be, Ponce is keeping tight-lipped for now. But he's made it clear his program, while somewhat confessional in nature and captured from the backseat of a taxi-like vehicle, will be nothing like the more R-rated TV show with a similar concept.

"Salacious stories from drunk passengers is not what I’m looking for at all," Ponce said."I like finding out what makes people tick."