The genesis of the project was in October 2019, when Nexstar management commissioned viewer research that showed that Americans were dissatisfied with opinion-based programming on the cable news channels.

Originally codenamed Project Neutral, on January 15, 2020, Nexstar announced the program, four months after the company closed on an acquisition of Tribune Media that encompassed much of the latter's broadcast and digital assets (including WGN America, which was the lone wholly owned property among Tribune's cable television assets and remains so as a Nexstar property), and greatly expanded Nexstar's broadcasting portfolio in the 50 largest U.S. television markets (adding stations in such major cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston).

The program was developed by Perry Sook and Sean Compton and under management of Jennifer Lyons, who was reassigned by Nexstar from her role as news director at its Chicago station WGN-TV to serve as WGN America's vice president of news,[7][8] with the assistance of WGN America Executive Vice President Sean Compton.

[10][11] Upon its September 2020 premiere, NewsNation replaced acquired entertainment programming and movies that WGN America used to occupy prime time and early late-night timeslots.

[14] Nexstar spent $20 million to build the operation, including a complete renovation of the WGN-TV studio facility in Chicago's North Center neighborhood.

To prevent preconceived viewer impressions based on their past work, Compton and Lyons hired journalists with experience rooted mainly in local television news to be part of the program's in-house staff of anchors, correspondents and meteorologists.

We want them to come from local stations which tend to report facts and let you come to your own opinion.”[17] By its launch, NewsNation hired 150 people in Chicago and bureaus in Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Washington, D.C. and Dallas.

Nexstar required that its local stations withhold breaking news footage from competing networks in order to give NewsNation right of first coverage; the move led CNN to terminate a video sharing agreement that granted Nexstar's 197 stations access to content from its CNN Newsource video wire service.

[19] The program saw a ratings high for anchor Joe Donlon's September 22, 2020, interview with President Donald Trump, which peaked at 218,000 viewers for the 8:00 p.m.

Lyons announced her resignation in March amid growing concern that the channel would lean rightward and minuscule ratings for the network.

[31] To promote the newscast, WGN America offered viewers unrestricted access to the livestream of the program's live broadcast and rebroadcast in 2020; following the promotional period, the program is only accessible via provider login to subscribers who receive WGN America through cable, satellite and wireline-style IPTV providers.