MSNBC has appointed Alex Wagner to succeed Rachel Madow as host of its 21:00 weekday four days a week, turning to a veteran of political news to fill one of the network’s most important time slots.
Ms. Wagner, 44, is a part of journalism in Washington with roots in progressive news and social media. She worked for MSNBC as a daily show host for several years and rejoined the channel in February as a senior political analyst and guest presenter at the most-watched time, replacing Ms. Madow and Chris Hayes.
In an interview, Rashida Jones, the channel’s president, said Ms. Wagner’s experience in covering politics would be crucial as the network prepares to cover this fall’s midterm elections.
“It’s not a show where our hair burns and we scream at each other and create these produced moments of tension,” Ms. Jones said. “I really want the excerpt from this show to be a better understanding of what’s going on in the world.
MSNBC said Ms. Wagner was the only Asian American to host a prime-time cable news program.
Ms. Madow, MSNBC’s most popular presenter, struck a deal last year that reduced her hosting obligations on the channel. It will continue to host at 9pm on Monday, when the show will still be called The Rachel Madow Show. Ms. Wagner will host the show at this time Tuesday through Friday, beginning Aug. 16. The name of her show has not been determined.
The hour at 21:00, the main part of the band in prime time, is now only part of a broader programming strategy that includes television, streaming, podcasts and newsletters. MSNBC, Fox News and CNN have launched video streaming services in recent years amid growing industry concern about the long-term erosion of cable TV viewership.
But traditional television continues to dominate cable news networks, despite the growing emphasis on emerging formats. Advertising budgets are slowly moving away from traditional television, and prime-time viewing is still a benchmark for success in the ratings-obsessed industry. Television distribution deals with cable companies such as Comcast and Charter are still huge dairy cows for cable news networks. CNN’s new owners killed their streaming service in April.
Ms. Jones said MSNBC would seek to build the network’s overall brand on a variety of different distribution platforms, instead of focusing on traditional television, an approach that was repeated by Chris Licht, the new president of CNN.
“It’s no secret that the cable’s audience is changing fast,” Ms. Jones said. “It’s still a large part of the audience that consumes MSNBC, but have we really focused on how to take that deep connection and move it to new places?”
Ms. Jones said MSNBC would explore opportunities with Ms. Wagner to appear on NBCUniversal’s streaming platforms, such as Peacock. Other MSNBC programs, including “Morning Joe” and “All In With Chris Hayes,” now appear on Peacock hours after they aired on MSNBC’s cable channel.
Ms Jones said she had not consulted Ms Madow about her replacement. Ms Jones said Ms. Wagner had been on MSNBC’s shortlist at 9pm for months, although she declined to give details of the talks.
Ms. Wagner’s twisting journalistic career spans print, digital, and television. A native of Washington, Ms. Wagner has worked as a cultural correspondent for the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank; as a co-host of the political documentaries of Showtime “The Circus”; and in The Atlantic.
Ms. Wagner’s relationship with MSNBC dates back more than a decade. Since 2011, she has hosted Now with Alex Wagner, a weekly opinion show. It was canceled in 2015 because the network focused its daily staff more on direct news coverage and less opinion.
Ms. Wagner, a graduate of Brown University in 1999, is married to Sam Cass, a former White House chef who became close friends with Barack and Michelle Obama.
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