Bye, ‘Scarborough Country;’ Hello, ‘Morning Joe’ (And ‘Live w/ Dan Abrams?’)

On morning TV, Joe Scarborough says, “I get to be myself. In the evening, you start out reading the teleprompter, do the intro, go to three guests, ask the questions, and if you want to reveal yourself, you’ve got 10 or 15 seconds to make a pithy comment and go to break.”

Partly for that reason, MSNBC is continuing its soft launch of Morning Joe.

Howard Kurtz reports: “The network is “finalizing the details for ‘Morning Joe’ to permanently take over the 6-to-9 morning slot. The network this week is removing the ‘Scarborough Country’ name from his old 9 p.m. program, now being hosted by MSNBC’s general manager, Dan Abrams. And CBS Radio, which syndicated Imus until his April firing, is negotiating whether some of its stations will carry the ‘Joe’ show, as well.” More…