MSNBC is making its lineup overhaul official, elevating a handful of key talent to the evenings while also making substantial changes to its weekend and dayside hours.
The most notable changes were telegraphed over the weekend, and will see major changes to MSNBC’s evening and primetime lineups.
As expected, when Rachel Maddow returns to her one day per week schedule in April, Jen Psaki will take over the 9 p.m hour on Tuesdays-Fridays. And The Weekend hosts Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele and Symone Sanders-Townsend will shift to the 7 p.m. hour, while hosting a two hour show on Mondays from 7-9 p.m.
As part of the changes, MSNBC’s current 7 p.m. host Joy Reid will leave the channel, with rotating hosts filling in until the new lineup kicks in. Alex Wagner, who had been helming 9 p.m. on Tuesdays-Fridays, will stay with MSNBC as a senior political analyst.
MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler announced the changes in a memo to staff Monday, adding that” I had hoped to share this with all of you directly and understand the frustration that you first learned about this over the weekend and not from me.”
On The Weekend, MSNBC will introduce a new trio of co-hosts for the program, with Jonathan Capehart working as one of the morning hosts, and Ayman Mohyeldin to be one of the evening co-hosts, with other hosts TBD. Ali Velshi will also expand his weekend show to three hours.
In conjunction with MSNBC’s spinoff from NBCUniversal, the cable channel will consolidate its production to New York and Washington D.C., with the channel opening a standalone Washington bureau, with plans to hire journalists and correspondents to stand up a new newsgathering operation.
As a result, the channel will stop producing shows out of Miami, with José Díaz-Balart Reports and The Katie Phang Show both ending production.
Díaz-Balart will continue as one of the weekend anchors for NBC Nightly News, while Phang will remain with MSNBC as a legal correspondent. As a result of the dayside changes, Ana Cabrera will expand an hour and anchor weekday Ana Cabrera Reports from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Chris Jansing will shift to anchor Chris Jansing Reports from 12 to 2 p.m. Katy Tur will add an hour to Katy Tur Reports from 2 to 4 p.m.
You can read Kutler’s memo, below.
Team,
As I shared with many of you a few weeks ago, my goal is to build on the successes that have distinguished MSNBC from its peers. We now have one of the most engaged audiences in all of television and are seeing rapid growth across digital, audio, and more. In the years ahead, we must continue to show up for our audiences in this critical moment while simultaneously best positioning ourselves for the future.
Today, I am sharing updates to our weekday and weekend lineups. I had hoped to share this with all of you directly and understand the frustration that you first learned about this over the weekend and not from me.
Unless otherwise noted above, these changes will go into effect in late April.
In the coming months, I will have more news to share on expanding our Washington operation, including establishing a bureau, and building a team of domestic and international correspondents.
Thank you for your continued commitment to our shared mission of keeping our audiences informed across all of our platforms.
Team leaders and HR managers will meet with various groups throughout the day to discuss all of this in more detail.
Weekday Programming | |
5 a.m. ET | “Way Too Early with Ali Vitali” |
6 a.m. ET | “Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist” |
10 a.m. ET | “Ana Cabrera Reports” |
12 p.m. ET | “Chris Jansing Reports” |
2 p.m. ET | “Katy Tur Reports” |
4 p.m. ET | “Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace” |
6 p.m. ET | “The Beat with Ari Melber” |
7 p.m. ET | Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez |
8 p.m. ET | “All In with Chris Hayes” on Tuesdays – Fridays; Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez on Mondays |
9 p.m. ET | “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Mondays; Jen Psaki on Tuesdays – Fridays |
10 p.m. ET | “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” |
11 p.m. ET | “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” |
Weekend Programming | |
7 a.m. ET | “The Weekend” co-hosted by Jonathan Capehart |
10 a.m. ET | “Velshi” |
1 p.m. ET | “Alex Witt Reports” |
4 p.m. ET | “Best Of” |
5 p.m. ET | “PoliticsNation with Rev. Al Sharpton” |
6 p.m. ET | “The Weekend” co-hosted by Ayman Mohyeldin |
Thank you,
Rebecca