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MSNBC announced Monday that journalist and commentator Alex Wagner will take over most of Rachel Madow’s prime-time view after the network’s biggest star significantly reduced his television time this spring.
In mid-August, Wagner will host 21:00 from Tuesday to Friday. A group of rotating presenters have maintained these valuable time intervals since May, when Madow cut his show with the highest rating until Monday night.
Wagner is not a new face for MSNBC viewers. She hosted a webcast between 2011 and 2015 and joined it earlier this year as a senior political analyst and guest presenter. “I am honored to participate in a key television hour at such a critical time for American democracy,” she said in a statement Monday.
She may be best known for her role as co–host and executive producer of the showtime documentary series “The Circus”, which focuses on politics. She has also worked as a co-host on CBS’s “CBS this Saturday morning” news program and as a network correspondent.
Wagner will have big shoes to fill. Maddow has long been MSNBC’s biggest rating magnet at a time when the network, like rival CNN, is struggling to achieve the same ratings as it did during the Donald Trump administration. Madou’s show finished fourth among cable news programs in 2021 with an average of 2.6 million viewers each night, compared to 3.2 million for rating leader Tucker Carlson of Fox News. Her show averaged about 2 million viewers per episode in May alone, and the numbers were far lower for prime-time guest appearances on other evenings of the week.
Madou, who took a two-month break from the network earlier this year to work on a film adaptation of a book she wrote about former Vice President Spiro Agnew, announced her limited schedule in April and said she wanted extra time to work. with “other irons on fire.” In addition to her duties as host on Monday, she will continue to appear on the web from time to time on other nights of the week for special coverage, breaking news and special events.
It is unusual for a cable news network to split an interval of the best time like 21:00 between multiple hosts on different days, which can confuse viewers. When Madow is at the desk on Monday, the show will be called “The Rachel Madow Show.” When Wagner will host the following evenings, he will still have an undefined name.
MSNBC President Rashida Jones said in a statement that Wagner was a “clear choice” for the role. “Her unique perspective – built on more than two decades in journalism – and persistent reporting in the United States and abroad will help our audiences to contextualize what matters,” Jones said.
The network has indicated that Wagner will be the only Asian-American host of a prime-time television news program.
Between now and Aug. 16, when Wagner takes office, the 9 p.m. class will continue to be run by a “rotation of MSNBC presenters” on days without Maddow, the network said.
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