Meet Alex Wagner, Who’s Succeeding The Biggest Star At MSNBC

“Upside down with excitement.”

That’s how Alex Wagner, a 44-year-old veteran of politics-focused TV journalism confessed to feeling after having gotten the nod from MSNBC to succeed Rachel Maddow — the latter, of course, being the network’s biggest ratings draw and who left the network with a crucial question to answer after she stepped back from her weeknight hosting duties:

What to do about Maddow’s 9 pm ET hour, MSNBC’s top-rated primetime slot?

With the Wagner announcement, MSNBC has now (for the most part) answered that question, leaving CNN as the only network with uncertainty still hanging over its 9 pm hour. The MSNBC rival, though, is apparently in no rush to name a permanent replacement for Chris Cuomo, and is content to use a rotating series of hosts in that time slot for now.

As for MSNBC settling this question for itself “for the most part,” that’s a reference to the fact that Wagner isn’t completely taking over for Maddow. The latter will, for now, still helm the 9 pm hour on Monday nights, with Wagner hosting her yet-to-be-named program Tuesday-Friday.

Fox News, meanwhile, wasted no time in taking a jab at the competition while reporting on Maddow’s successor, giving its treatment of the news perhaps the sauciest headline that the perennially #1 cable news network’s digital arm could have come up with (“MSNBC taps Alex Wagner to fill Rachel Maddow void despite network’s history of scrapping her programs”).

Rival network sniping aside, the fact remains that Wagner is about to become one of the most high-profile and important women in cable news (and, also, the only Asian-American to host a primetime cable news program) once her show launches on August 16. The network pointed me to the following statement from Wagner, who said today that “I’m honored to be anchoring a key hour of television in such a critical time for American democracy.

“In many ways, the stakes have never been higher, and there’s no better place to explore this moment than MSNBC. I’m thrilled to be coming home.”

Maddow transitioned to hosting just one night a week in May, telling viewers of The Rachel Maddow Show that it’s partly about giving herself “just more time to work on some of this other stuff that I’ve got cooking for MSNBC and NBC.” Wagner’s appointment, meanwhile, is not only important because it puts her front and center during what’s been the biggest ratings hour for MSNBC.

As ratings at both CNN and MSNBC have declined while Fox News continues to see an increase, Wagner will also sit at the center of a programming strategy at MSNBC that calls for a increasing constellation of content orbiting around its shows and top-draw stars — spanning podcasts and newsletters, as well as streaming initiatives. This, by the way, is an approach that CNN under new boss Chris Licht thinks is the way forward there, as well, as the ratings-obsessed cable news business continues to grapple with how much of its emphasis ought to shift toward digital formats.

As for Wagner herself, Maddow’s audience will no doubt find much to like in the former’s progressive politics as well as her low-key, cerebral personality that makes her more an intellectual conversationalist and less a shouty cable news pugilist.

In a news release, MSNBC president Rashida Jones praised Wagner’s more than two decades in journalism and her “tenacious reporting.” Among other highlights of Wagner’s career:

From 2011-2015, Wagner hosted her Emmy-nominated MSNBC daily news program NOW with Alex Wagner. She’d previously worked as an analyst for the network. In February 2022, Wagner returned to MSNBC as a senior political analyst and guest anchor.

She’s also worked as co-host and executive producer of Showtime’s Emmy-nominated political docuseries, The Circus. Her experience also includes serving as a special correspondent for CBS News and co-host of CBS This Morning: Saturday; she’s been a senior editor at The Atlantic; and she also worked as a reporter for HuffPost, covering the economy, and as a White House correspondent for AOL’s Politics Daily.