Craig Melvin is stepping away from MSNBC’s 11 a.m. hour, named Craig Melvin Reports, by April 1. A rotating lineup of anchors will lead the hour until his permanent replacement is announced. That said, Melvin will remain the news anchor for NBC’s Today—and continue to co-host Today’s Third Hour (9 a.m.) weekday mornings.
Melvin has been with NBC for more than a decade, joining from the network’s Washington D.C. affiliate in 2011. He wears a lot of hats for the team. In addition to his work for the broadcast network, Melvin was named MSNBC weekday anchor in 2016. In Sept. 2018 , he left his role as co-host of NBC’s Saturday Today to join the flagship edition of Today as its news anchor. He also joined Today’s Third Hour as a permanent co-host in Jan. 2019. That’s four hours of live television each weekday, including his MSNBC hour, all before Noon ET; not to mention serving as host of Dateline Extra, NBC’s syndicated version of the true crime series.
Several Today anchors have made similar moves recently. Sheinelle Jones stepped back from Weekend Today, Dylan Dreyer stepped back from Weekend Today. Carson Daly stepped back from Last Call. It’s not exactly a secret that Today show hours are long (and early)—and stepping back allows on-air talent to focus more time on the weekday gig.
Melvin’s exit from MSNBC daytime represents yet another change to MSNBC’s programming lineup. Stephanie Ruhle recently left 9 a.m. to take over The 11th Hour that had previously been hosted by Brian Williams. The network will add a fourth hour of Morning Joe in Ruhle’s former 9 a.m. timeslot. Additionally, Rachel Maddow is on hiatus from her 9 p.m. program show to work on a film and a new podcast—and there have been reports that she wants to permanently scale back her schedule later this year.