Tom Brokaw to Hit the Road for USA Network

According to the Associated Press, Brokaw, 69, will be traveling along U.S. Highway 50, reporting on the impact of the global economic crisis on the residents of the region.

The program comes on the heels of non-stop coverage of the 2008 election and President Barack Obama's inauguration.

"What I've learned," Brokaw said, "is that it's harder to shift my motor into a lower gear."

The concept for U.S. Highway 50 comes from a most unlikely source, political science. Among academics, the demographically diverse strip is known as a laboratory of sorts to test political theories on a variety of subjects, from affirmative action to single-payer health care.

"I have felt for a long time that we [political reporters] do an inadequate job of covering Washington from the outside. . . . If there is any theme from the Obama campaign, it is that they want to knit the country together again, so we're going to go out and see how they're doing," Brokaw said.

Among the stories shot for the new series are a profile of a relationship between a banker and car dealer, the suspicion of many gun owners towards the new administration and the relationship between education and race.