Rita Cosby To Host Prime Crime On MSNBC; Time Slot TBA; Premiere Set For Fall

Update: 4:10pm: Headline updated to “Fall.”

Don’t believe everything you read on Drudge, chapter 149. Yes, Rita Cosby is coming to MSNBC: The press release will come out later today. But the announcement won’t mention a time slot, because MSNBC’s new primetime lineup has not been finalized. Drudge’s assertation that Rita was coming to 10pm is false, three sources said this afternoon.

MSNBC’s primetime amounts to a big question mark at this point. The most logical lineup sounds like this: Hardball at 7, Tucker Carlson at 8, “Crime At Nine” with Cosby (and Dan Abrams??) at 9, Joe Scarborough at 10, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 11 (on tape). “It will all be clear in June,” an insider said this afternoon…

> First MSNBC nabs Carlson from CNN, then it signs Cosby. Are the two outside hires an admission that MSNBC doesn’t develop talent the way NBC expected it would?

> “Cosby is one of the nicest people, a real sweetheart, and a very hard-nosed reporter,” an FNC employee e-mails. “I, for one, am sorry to see her leave. I’m hoping this doesn’t turn into one of those ‘we wish her well’ slaps.”

> 1:03pm: “Bill McCuddy of Fox News just slammed Rita Cosby during an entertainment segment,” a tipster says. What did McCuddy say?

> TVNewser, April 19: “A Prime Schedule Shift? MSNBC May Move Carlson To 8pm, Develop Crime Show”