‘It’s One Of The Best Jobs In Journalism’

One of the most closely-watched transitions in recent cable news history is set to get under way this week, with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner on August 16 moving into Rachel Maddow’s 9 PM time slot four nights a week.

Maddow will still helm that time slot on Monday nights, preserving a connection with the MSNBC stalwart who worked assiduously since 2008 to turn her hour into the linchpin of the network’s primetime block of programming — in part, by sprinkling the broadcasts with a mix of policy wonkishness, left-of-center politics and earnest monologues. The result? Maddow proved herself, among other things, to be the only non-Fox cable news personality with a consistent ability to draw ratings on par with at least some of the Murdoch-owned network’s biggest stars.

Never mind that singular dynamic, though, or the pressure that an outsider might surmise would await any Maddow successor, given that MSNBC’s ratings for the 9 PM hour nosedived after Maddow curtailed her schedule earlier this year. Wagner — a veteran of MSNBC as well as of CBS News and Showtime’s The Circus — gives the impression that she’s loving every minute of all this, expectations be damned. In fact, her response to the job offer from MSNBC president Rashida Jones was “yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”

In an interview with me, the namesake of the forthcoming Alex Wagner Tonight described the opportunity to helm this show, at this hour, as “one of the best jobs in journalism.” She also told me that she’s not been given anything resembling a ratings-oriented mandate from above, and that she’s going to try and offer viewers something fresh — including more interviews, as well as venturing outside the studio where and when it makes sense to do so.

“I think Rachel has done something extraordinary with that hour, and what we do is not going to be the same TV show,” Wagner told me. “I think it’s an honor to be asked, and I feel such a responsibility to do something that is rigorous and compelling and additive — and does a service to the thing that (Rachel) built.

“The show is going to change over the course of our broadcast time, and we are all accepting of that and enthused about it. I’ll compare this to motherhood — you have all this preparation and you do the best that you can, but you realize that once the baby arrives everything’s going to be different.”

Some of that change, it should go without saying, is also simply a function of this singular moment in cable news — when the three major networks are all to one degree or another investing in and laying down markers for their respective streaming futures. While, at the same time, continuing to offer a compelling linear product that fewer people are tuning in to post-Trump, but which will be as relevant as ever especially with a bruising midterm election season just around the corner.

For MSNBC, in particular, this is a moment characterized by experimentation and change internally. In recent weeks, the network has added former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki to its roster of hosts. She’ll be a key part of midterm election coverage, in addition to hosting a new streaming program that’s in development. Speaking of the Biden White House, another recent MSNBC addition is Symone Sanders, formerly the chief spokesperson for Vice President Harris.

There’s also been a degree of retrenchment for MSNBC, which in recent days confirmed the cancellation of two of its streaming news programs on Peacock (helmed by Zerlina Maxwell and Ayman Mohyeldin).

Wagner, meanwhile, told me that while she’s “definitely not going to try and mimic what Rachel does,” her goal is to make sure that the primetime slot that she’s moving into is regarded as “an appointment hour of television.” MSNBC adds that Wagner — who becomes the only Asian-American to host a primetime cable news show — will also contribute to special coverage for the network, including of the midterms this fall.

She continues: “I think you’ll see an emphasis on interviews, and you might see some field pieces, because I think — what I learned from my time on Showtime and The Circus was just how important it is to get on the ground to understand what’s happening, because a lot of cable happens in studios.

“I think one of my skills as a journalist is interviewing people, so I think we’re also going to put a priority on that. We’re trying new things, and I think everybody’s very eyes-wide-open about the fact that we’re going to try things. Hopefully they work, and if they don’t we’ll try different things. We’re going to be patient and responsive in terms of how we build the show.”

Wagner is launching her show, by the way, at a time when MSNBC is currently running ahead of CNN (but behind Fox) in total day as well as primetime ratings.

MSNBC finished July, for example, with an average total audience of 1.295 million viewers in primetime, down 2 percent from the year-ago period. CNN pulled in just 731,000 viewers on average in primetime, a 15% decline from the year-ago period.