2 months ago
MS NOW unveiled its first awesome overhaul of its schedule since nan Versant spinoff, pinch Alicia Menendez moving to anchor successful nan daytime, Stephanie Ruhle returning to mornings and Ali Velshi becoming nan caller big of The 11th Hour.
Other changes: Luke Russert will return Menendez’s spot arsenic co-host of The Weeknight, joining Symone Sanders Townsend and Michael Steele; Jacob Soboroff will return Velshi’s erstwhile play timeslot, and Morning Joe will return to 3 hours. In addition, Ana Cabrera, who has anchored successful a greeting block, is departing nan network.
The changes will spell into effect successful June.
MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler wrote successful a memo to staffers that, fixed nan changes, labor will beryllium capable to displacement to caller roles. “In astir cases, comparable opportunities will beryllium disposable to labor arsenic these changes return shape. Overall, we expect to person much group moving astatine MS NOW by nan extremity of 2026 than we do today,” she wrote.
One of nan motivating factors successful nan lineup overhaul is to boost daytime programming, wherever viewership has been sluggish and has importantly lagged nan network’s primetime hours. The web said that nan daytime will still beryllium rooted successful difficult news, but caller programme names will beryllium announced.
Ruhle will motorboat a caller programme from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET. Ruhle will proceed to service arsenic elder business analyst, and will proceed to co-host nan MS NOW YouTube Live bid It’s Happening pinch Velshi & Ruhle.
Morning Joe will spell backmost to 3 hours, starting astatine 6 p.m. ET. The show was expanded to nan 9 a.m. ET hr 2022, and while viewership has accrued vs. nan clip play average, hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski person talked astir nan further demands. As portion of nan changes, Jonathan Lemire will go a co-anchor of nan 8 a.m. hour, while nan web said that nan show will beryllium portion of nan network’s upcoming subscription product.
A caller anchor will beryllium named for nan 11 a.m. ET hr successful nan coming weeks, pinch Menendez taking connected nan noon to 2 p.m. ET clip slot. She has been co-anchor of The Weeknight since its motorboat past year, and nan web has pointed to a 30% uptick successful full viewers and 46% summation successful nan 25-54 demo versus nan erstwhile caretaker of nan 7 p.m. ET hour, The ReidOut.
Chris Jansing, who has anchored astatine 1 p.m. ET, will go main governmental reporter. She first joined nan web arsenic an anchor during nan sum of 9/11, and has served successful aggregate roles, including White House analogous and newsman connected awesome breaking news events including Hurricane Katrina and awesome wide shooting tragedies.
Katy Tur will stay successful nan 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET clip slot, followed by Nicolle Wallace’s 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET show.
The Weeknight will aerial for 1 hr astatine 7 p.m. ET passim nan week, having been 2 hours connected Mondays. All In pinch Chris Hayes will return to nan 8 p.m. ET hr connected that night, its regular slot done nan remainder of nan week.
Russert has been a fill-in anchor connected The Weekend since it launched, and has been nan big and imaginative head of MS NOW Live, its unrecorded arena series. He is simply a erstwhile Capitol Hill newsman and writer of Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself, a memoir astir nan nonaccomplishment of his father, Tim Russert.
Velshi will proceed to service arsenic main information reporter, a cardinal domiciled connected predetermination nights, arsenic he takes connected nan duties arsenic The 11th Hour host. He’s been pinch nan web since 2016, and has been anchoring his play programme Velshi.
Taking his spot connected weekends will beryllium Soboroff, who will anchor from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET. He will stay nan MS NOW elder nationalist and governmental reporter. Among different things, he covered nan 2024 conventions, nan January, 2025 wildfires and nan ICE raids successful Los Angeles. He besides reported connected nan ICE protests successful Minnesota successful January. He authored nan caller book Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster.
Cabrera, who joined MSNBC from CNN successful 2023, announced her departure successful a video connected societal media this morning, saying, “I’ve decided to make a change, and I americium leaving MS NOW.”
She has not announced what she will do next, but said, “Throughout my career, I’ve ever sought nan champion opportunities to do this activity and person nan top effect while staying existent to myself and my ngo arsenic a journalist. My extremity has ever been to amended and pass and radiance light, to clasp group successful powerfulness accountable, group connected each sides of nan governmental aisle and non politicians arsenic well, to beryllium a authorities watchdog, to bring you compelling stories from crossed a wide scope of news and to ever activity nan truth, pursuing nan facts wherever they lead. That’s what I’ve ever done, and what I will proceed to do.”
Some of nan changes astatine MS NOW were first reported by Status.
