Wednesday night marked the one-year anniversary of Alex Wagner Tonight.
The MSNBC show, which airs Tuesday through Friday, threw a low-key celebration with some anniversary cake off-air and on-air an acknowledgment from her lead-in, Chris Hayes, who claimed that the one-year anniversary of Alex Wagner Tonight is even better than the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which happens to have been signed on the very same day as Wagner’s show debut.
Watch the video of the hand-off below.
Whoo! Some mighty fine cake for the longest shortest year ever! pic.twitter.com/jRM5KRMzm0
— Alex Wagner Tonight (@WagnerTonight) August 17, 2023
ICYMI: @chrislhayes congratulates @alexwagner on the one-year anniversary of @WagnerTonight.
Watch ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/YzxTtHld9z
— MSNBC Public Relations (@MSNBCPR) August 17, 2023
Everything went smoothly for Wagner during the anniversary show, unlike her debut show, which featured “technical gremlins.”
In her time at MSNBC, AWT has been a solid performer, with the show on track to having August being its highest-rated month in total viewers and Adults 25-54 demos, undoubtedly aided by the Trump indictment news.
Since its launch, Alex Wagner Tonight has grown its viewership by +5% among total viewers and +23% among A25-54. Compared with its timeslot rivals, AWT performs better than CNN, which is up +1% and down -1%, in those respective demos, while Fox News is down -16% and -36%, respectively.
All this is good news, however, AWT still trails Fox News’ Hannity in the 9 p.m. cable news ratings, finishing in second place for the time period, and her show numbers don’t come close to what Rachel Maddow pulls when she anchors her weekly show on Monday night.