In addition to Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid’s upcoming MSNBC debuts, is the timeslot change for MSNBC’s long-running daytime host Andrea Mitchell. Starting Monday, her show will start at NoonET.
“I’m thrilled about the change,” Mitchell told TVNewser in an interview this afternoon. Mitchell, who has hosted a show on MSNBC since 2000, sees the move as an opportunity to get an earlier jump on newsmaking interviews with fewer interruptions from White House press briefings and speeches that would often cut into her 1pm show.
The new time slot also means more interviews with lawmakers from Capitol Hill, as they can appear before their 1pm caucus meetings.
Mitchell, who also serves as Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent for NBC News, says she likes the new MSNBC lineup. “It clusters the harder news broadcast shows together” earlier in the day, then starting with Farrow at 1pm evolves into more conversation, opinion, and advocacy. She calls Farrow “brilliant” and thinks he will “wow” his audience.
The move an hour earlier means she’ll also have more time to focus on NBC News reporting. In 2013, Mitchell was third of all evening news correspondents when measured in minutes on-air. Only her NBC colleague Tom Costello and ABC’s David Muir were used more. “I’ll finish my show at 1, and be able to be more personally involved for an extra hour in preparing my ‘Nightly News’ reports,” she says.
With strong reporting from Richard Engel in Ukraine and Brian Williams in Sochi—along with the leadership of new NBC News President Deborah Turness—Mitchell feels NBC News is on a roll.
“Deborah has energized everyone,” says Mitchell, who has been with NBC News since 1978. “I don’t think we’ve ever been stronger.”