May 8, 2000, WP: MSNBC president Erik Sorenson says he’s trying to “broaden the mix” so that MSNBC, unlike its rivals, doesn’t simply run “talk shows and headline interviews.”
June 26, 2006, NYT: NBC News president Steve Capus says “all three channels are doing a variation of headline news all day and talk shows at night. We need to get away from that.”
Michael Rubin‘s return and MSNBC’s plans for taped programming in primetime could be considered a “back to the future” strategy for the cable news network. In slower news periods, the net has a tendency to place newsmagazines like MSNBC Investigates and Headliners & Legends in primetime slots. It’s an instinct: “let’s go to the tape.” When the news picks up (election season, Sept. 11, the war in Iraq), the programs are shelved. But they usually re-appear before too long.
Click continued for a chronology…
In 1999, Rubin left CBS (where he worked on Eye to Eye, Street Stories, and Public Eye) and joined MSNBC as the producer of Special Edition, a nightly 8pm newsmagazine hosted by Ann Curry. Around the same time, Headliners & Legends with Matt Lauer premiered at 10pm.
Then-president Erik Sorenson said he was stocking up on documentaries as an alternative to typical nightly talk shows.
In May 2000, Howard Kurtz analyzed the 8pm content. In one week, Special Edition (and Monday’s Crime Files) dealt with child sexual abuse, mountain lions and coyotes that attack, Mary Kay LeTourneau, and private eyes who catch cheating spouses.
A month later, in June 2000, Hardball was moved from 7 to 5pm, making way for a rotation of long-form programs. “I’m told that the cable station wants to move away from the unscripted, confrontational format that served it so well during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and for such stories as the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy Jr. and the saga of Elian Gonzalez — at least during prime time,” the NY Daily News said at the time.
Some of the newsmags were temporarily dropped in favor of Decision 2000 coverage and a second hour of political talk with Chris Matthews, but the tape came back. In June 2001, MSNBC moved The News with Brian Williams to 8pm and introduced “MSNBC Investigates” at 9pm.
The channel was criticized for “pandering” to the 25-54 demo, but they worked: “They have helped give MSNBC the youngest of the news audiences, with a median age of about 51,” the New York Times said on Aug. 5, 2001.
After Sept. 11, 2001, live shows by hosts like Ashleigh Banfield and Alan Keyes replaced some of the newsmag hours. But the programs faded quickly. When Banfield’s On Location was cancelled in October 2002, episodes of MSNBC Investigates filled the timeslot. The network brought in Dateline EP Marc Rossensasser to oversee primetime. Before long, shows like “Countdown: Iraq” and “Scarborough Country” premiered, forming the basis of the primetime schedule you see now…