MSNBC is transforming its weekend programming lineup, highlighted by the debut of a new ensemble show named The Weekend, co-hosted by Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Michael Steele.
The new ensemble show will air Saturdays and Sundays from 8-10 a.m. ET, and will emanate from the network’s Washington D.C. studios. The Weekend will be executive produced by Kyle Griffin, a longtime producer for the network who recently ep’d weekend evening programming.
Speaking of weekend evening programming, Ayman Mohyeldin will take over Mehdi Hasan’s Sunday 8 p.m. hour, expanding his workload to four hours on both Saturday and Sundays (7-9 p.m. ET). Despite having his MSNBC/Peacock show canceled, Hasan, one of the network’s more outspoken personalities, will remain at MSNBC as a political analyst and fill-in host.
Alex Witt will add more hours of live, breaking news coverage to Alex Witt Reports from 1-4 p.m. ET. Yasmin Vossoughian will remain with MSNBC as a national reporter as she has been doing for MSNBC throughout the year. Witt will assume her 3 p.m. hour of MSNBC Reports.
The network’s weekend 4 p.m. hour, currently hosted by Sanders-Townsend, will soon be occupied by a “Best Of” The Beat with Ari Melber.
Additionally, Jonathan Capehart will move his weekend morning program to 6 p.m. ET on Saturdays and Sundays. Katie Phang will move from Saturday mornings to Saturdays at 12 p.m. ET, complementing Inside with Jen Psaki on Sundays in the same time slot. Ali Velshi will continue his timeslot with four hours of programming on the weekends.
MSNBC isn’t the only cable news network to recently present a new weekend lineup. CNN launched a new Saturday morning lineup earlier this month, featuring Victor Blackwell, Chris Wallace and Christiane Amanpour. MSNBC could use a Nielsen ratings boost on weekends and undoubtedly hopes this new schedule will provide them with just that.
Here’s the new MSNBC weekend lineup, obtained by TVNewser:
