George Will, the longtime Washington Post columnist who famously left the Republican party last year over the GOP’s endorsement of Donald Trump, has joined NBC News and MSNBC as a contributor. (THR)
Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, was most recently a contributor at Fox News, though he became a free agent in January when Fox declined to renew his contract. Before joining Fox in 2013, he spent three decades as a contributor with ABC. Since January, Will has been an increasingly regular presence on MSNBC, with the contributor deal formalizing the relationship. (Politico / On Media)
Steve Kornacki, who has been an MSNBC contributor since 2010, has co-hosted The Cycle, Up on weekend mornings, and lately has anchored the network’s 4 p.m. hour, will now be national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. Kornacki will contribute regularly to political reporting on the Today show and become the primary fill-in host for Hardball with Chris Matthews. (TVNewser)
Meanwhile, Nicolle Wallace’s new MSNBC program, to be called Deadline: White House, debuts Tuesday at 4 p.m. With Deadline, MSNBC is adding a new hour of political focus in a time slot it had been devoting to broader general-news coverage. (Variety)