Stephanie Ruhle will soon become the new host of MSNBC’s 11 p.m. hour.
Axios reported the imminent move on Wednesday night—citing two sources familiar with the situation—and TVNewser confirmed the news shortly after.
Ruhle currently hosts the network’s 9 a.m. hour. However, according to Axios, that hour will become part of Morning Joe after Ruhle moves to 11 p.m. This means that Morning Joe will eventually air from 6-10 a.m. ET.
Ruhle is poised to become the permanent replacement to Brian Williams, the NBC News legend who launched The 11th Hour in 2016 and left the program (and NBC News) at the end of last year. With Williams at the helm, The 11th Hour was consistently the most-watched cable news show in the 11 p.m. timeslot (during the Trump years) and one of the most-watched shows on the entire network.
The baton is being passed to Ruhle, an investment banker-turned-anchor who joined MSNBC from Bloomberg in April 2016. In addition to anchoring MSNBC dayside, Ruhle is NBC News senior business correspondent and previously co-hosted the Saturday edition of Today.
After Williams announced his imminent departure from the program, we pointed to Ruhle, Ali Velshi, Steve Kornacki, Chris Jansing, and Mehdi Hasan as possible 11 p.m. successors and we polled you, the TVNewser reader, late last year to find out who you thought would be Williams’ replacement.
Interestingly, Velshi got the most votes (31.5%), followed by Kornacki (25%), Ruhle (14%) “Other,” (10.5%), Hasan (10.2%), and Jansing (8.8%).
MSNBC president Rashida Jones announced the moves on Thursday morning in a memo to staff:
All,
I’m delighted to share two significant programming updates that strengthen our lineup and set us up for success as we enter what is sure to be a consequential year.
Morning Joe, our premier morning program for the last 15 years, will be expanding to four hours, to 10 a.m. This expansion will give us an opportunity to extend the reach of the program, which has become so well known for its signature perspective and analysis, as well as its news-making exclusive interviews with top lawmakers, senior government officials and thought leaders.
Stephanie Ruhle, who had been anchoring the 9 a.m. slot, will take over as host of The 11th Hour, bringing her business acumen, hard-hitting interview style and original reporting to the viewers in that slot. Since joining MSNBC in 2016, Stephanie has been a staple of our dayside anchor team and a trusted voice on topics at the intersection of politics, finance and international business. In addition to bringing her decades-long experience to The 11th Hour, Stephanie will continue to appear across all platforms as NBC News Senior Business Analyst.
Please join me in congratulating the Morning Joe and The 11th Hour teams on these exciting new opportunities.
Rashida Jones
President, MSNBC