Chris Hayes will take over the 8 p.m. time slot on MSNBC in the next month, the channel is expected to announce on Thursday morning, the day after the current host of that hour, Ed Schultz, said he was moving from the weekdays to the weekends.
Mr. Hayes, a liberal intellectual who has hosted a well-regarded weekend morning program on MSNBC for the past 18 months, is a protégé of Rachel Maddow, the highest-rated host on the channel. He will become the lead-in for her 9 p.m. program, “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
The change is predicated on the belief that MSNBC can win a wider audience with Mr. Hayes than it did with Mr. Schultz, a champion of the working class whose bluster didn’t always pair well with Ms. Maddow and the channel’s other prime-time program, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.” Mr. Hayes, on the other hand, is just as wonky as Ms. Maddow and Mr. O’Donnell, and is a regular contributor to both of their programs.
Since the departure of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC some years back, Ed Schultz has unofficially picked up Keith’s banner and ran with it. He is now considered by some one of the most liberal host on the cable network. And with that label, Ed’s primetime television slot at 8PM weeknight receives a decent size audience. But according to reporting by The New York Times, Ed’s show may soon be history.
Brian Stelter, a Times Media reporter wrote a piece about the future of MSNBC and compared the liberal leaning network to Fox News – the more conservative network. And coming to the end of the piece, Brian wrote:
Several MSNBC employees, who spoke about programming plans on the condition of anonymity, said the most likely candidate for a new show was the Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, a frequent substitute for Ms. Maddow. Mr. Klein may start with a weekend time slot, but these people said the 8 p.m. weekday time slot held by Mr. Schultz was also a possibility.
Mr. Griffin, meanwhile, declined to comment on whether the performance of his prime-time lineup would provide a boost to the channel’s subscriber fees.
Of course the denials would come. When asked about this claim by Mediaite, a spokesperson for MSNBC released the following statement:
“We’re very happy with the performance of our primetime lineup, which topped Fox News Channel three nights this week. There are no changes planned.”
Ed Shultz sometimes gets carried away. He’s very emotional about the issues of the times. But did he cross the line when he called a right winged host a “right winged slut?” Many may agree with Mr. Shultz on this, especially when talking about Laura Ingraham.
What did Ed say?
“President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Mo., on Sunday but you know what they’re talking about, like this right-wing slut, what’s her name?, Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she’s a talk slut. You see, she was, back in the day, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas. But now that Obama’s doing it, they’re working him over.”
Mrs Ingraham replied on her Facebook page, saying;
Re. the crude comments made about me by Ed Schultz on his radio program: First, I was surprised to learn that Ed Schultz actually hosted a radio show. Is it only available online? Second, I have to get back to recording the audio edition of my new book “Of Thee I Zing.” Now I’m tempted to insert one additional zing–about men who preach civility but practice misogyny.
And apparently, MSNBC executives agree that Ed went too far. Today, they have suspended Ed for a week because of the online out-cry from different blogs calling for some action to be taken.
Here’s the audio of Ed, talking about Laura Ingraham on his radio show;
I’m usually not a big fan of Ed Shultz. I know his passion for the issues, but there are times when he allows his passion to take over the debate and, in my opinion, losing focus of the bigger picture. So for that reason, 10PM is usually the time I switch from MSNBC.
But last night, Rachel Maddow’s lead into The Ed Show made me keep the remote control at a distance. She promised that his show was going to be different, something I should not miss. Rachel was right. Last night, Ed Shultz earned his money.
Mr. Shultz had Michael Steele – the former RNC Chairman – on the show and asked some very pointed questions. Like, why haven’t Republicans done anything about the jobs situation like they promised the American people in the 2010 midterm campaigns? Of course, Steele tried to stick to his talking points, but Ed kept his cool and insisted on answers to his questions.
But the moment in the show that really brought it home for me, was when Ed introduced two Republicans citizens, one a fireman and the other a cop, who felt that the Republican party has, as they put it, “left us behind.” And listening to Michael Steele trying to calm these former Republicans and bring them back into the fold was well worth the show. Pure comedy! Trying to explain verbatim would not do the show any justice, so without further ado, watch what happened below.
One of the most trusted and respected voices on MSNBC sent shockwaves throughout the cable news industry tonight with eight words: “This will be the last episode of Countdown!”
Keith Olbermann’s announcement on tonight’s edition of his show brought a shocking, but not a totally unexpected end to the eight year run of the network show. And after Mr. Olbermann said his goodbyes to the audience, social networks like Twitter and Facebook buzzed with the news.
Olbermann was always one of the balancing voices against the insanity of today’s Republican party, Fox News and the right winged propaganda machine, so speculations about his abrupt removal from the MSNBC line-up are sure to be the topic for quite awhile.
MSNBC’s statement concerning the news:
MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC’s success and we wish him well in his future endeavors.
In announcing his departure, Olbermann told the viewers;
“I was supposed to fill in for the late Jerry Nachman for exactly three days. 49 days later there was a four-year contract for me to return to this nightly 8 PM time slot which I had fled from four years earlier.”
The program grew thanks entirely to your support with great rewards for me and I hope for you. There were many occasions particularly in the last two and a half years where all that surrounded the show — but never the show itself — was just too much for me. But your support and loyalty and if I may use the word insistence ultimately required that I keep going.”
It should be noted that Comcast recently got the approval to acquire MSNBC, so this decision to end Countdown With Keith Olbermann seems a little more than just a coincidence. Comcast CEO, Brian Roberts was a co-chairman of the host committee at the 2000 Republican Convention, and Steve Burke, who served as Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President and President of Comcast Cable for more than five years, raised at least $200,000.00 for Geroge W. Bush’s re-election campaign.
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