MSNBC will be shaking up its weekend roster in the new year, giving a new morning show to Ali Velshi and tapping Alicia Menendez for a pair of afternoon slots.
Velshi—who currently anchors the 3 p.m. hour weekdays, and Velshi & Ruhle alongside Stephanie Ruhle at 1 p.m.—will shift to weekend mornings in January. He’ll head up a new 8-10 a.m. show on Saturdays and Sundays that will lead into AM Joy, which is the network’s highest-rated weekend program.
As part of the move, David Gura, who now anchors UP on Sunday mornings, will shift to anchoring MSNBC Live from 2-4 p.m. on Saturdays.
Velshi—who splits his time between New York and Philadelphia, where he teaches a course at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School— will also continue as a fill-in MSNBC primetime anchor during the week.
Menendez, who started at MSNBC in October, will host a pair of weekend shows: at 4 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday.
The weekend shake-up comes as MSNBC is expanding its live weekend programming and breaking news coverage going into the 2020 presidential election.