‘I Feel Great About The Road That Lies Ahead’

It’s been more than six months since Alex Wagner Tonight debuted on MSNBC, as Alex Wagner took over the 9 p.m. ET hour that had been defined for 14 years by Rachel Maddow, the network’s highest-rated prime time host. The Rachel Maddow Show was regularly the only cable news show capable of challenging long time ratings leader Fox News Channel. “There’s been a period of adjustment,” Wagner told me, noting that viewers had to adjust not just to a new show, but also to the unusual arrangement of The Rachel Maddow Show continuing on Monday nights while Alex Wagner Tonight aired the rest of the week. “I think MSNBC gave me an extraordinarily beautiful amount of room to make the show my own and to figure out what it was all about.”

It was MSNBC President Rashida Jones who both selected Wagner for the role and the freedom to experiment, saying last year that “we’re giving her the time and space to grow.” That support was critical in the show’s first weeks as ratings in the 9 p.m. hour dropped by 50% among viewers 25 to 54, the key demographic coveted by advertisers.

“I really hope Rachel’s admirers come and stay through the rest of the week,” Wagner told The Washington Post ahead of her debut last August. “We’re going to work really hard to get a lot of people to watch the show.” And over its first six months, Alex Wagner Tonight has established itself and built its own loyal audience—consistently beating CNN among total viewers, and outperforming CNN in the key demo in February, when the show posted its largest lead over CNN since launch.

While Fox News Channel’s Hannity remains in first place at 9 p.m., Wagner’s cemented her hold on second, boosted in part by CNN’s struggles, as the network has gone without a permanent host since Chris Cuomo’s exit in December 2021.

“I’ve been incredibly enthused and heartened by the extraordinary the degree to which we’ve had a lot of crossover,” Wagner said. “And I love watching Rachel on Mondays, she is a samurai of the news. She’s just incredibly skilled. And you know, she’s singular. And what is wonderful about my job is that nobody ever said, ‘you need to be Rachel.’”

Wagner says those crossover viewers have stuck with her because they see MSNBC’s 9 p.m. hour as a destination—a place to go to gain a better understanding of important stories. “What was established at 9 p.m. was that you can do something that’s really meaningful, that might seem wonky or too academic, and people will love it,” Wagner told me. “They will respond. I think that has taught us a great lesson about the tastes of our viewers.”

Maddow defied the conventions of cable news by doing long segments packed with information and analysis. Similarly, Wagner dives deeply into stories like Governor Ron DeSantis’ “war on woke.” Recently, Wagner traveled to the Florida to talk to students at New College in Sarasota. DeSantis has targeted the school, replacing members of the school’s board, which then ousted the university president.

“It was really important to go down there,” Wagner told me. “Traveling and going to understand the issues on the ground was always something I wanted to do with the show, and I am delighted that it has been so resonant in terms of our audience. And people really feel like they’re learning about what is actually happening in the world. They’re seeing, you know, the faces of a lot of these policies that otherwise appear to be mostly abstract.”

Wagner’s story on New College has generated nearly half a million views on YouTube, and thousands of comments, showing that the Alex Wagner Tonight brand has even more room to grow beyond the nightly broadcast. Wagner said reaching people via social media and platforms like YouTube will be a key part of the next few months as the show nears its first anniversary.

“We’re building the plane on the runway,” Wagner told me. “And the news doesn’t stop for someone to sort of figure out how to do the best cable news hour they can. And in the environment that we’ve been working, which has been extraordinary, to say the least, I’m really proud of what we’ve done in the last six months, and I feel great about the road that lies ahead.”