MSNBC confirmed plans to overhaul its daytime, primetime and weekend lineup, with Jen Psaki and the three anchors of The Weekend — Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez — getting primetime shows.
Psaki will anchor the Tuesday to Friday 9 p.m. ET primetime hour starting in the spring, when Rachel Maddow returns to a once-a-week Monday schedule. Psaki will succeed Alex Wagner, who will continue at the network as senior political analyst.
The changes were outlined in a memo to staffers from MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler.
MSNBC is canceling Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. ET show ReidOut and she will leave the network this week. Townsend, Menendez and Steele will co-host a weeknight show in that time slot, including a two hour edition on Mondays. A rotating series of anchors will fill in until the new show is launched.
The network also is making plans for replacements to The Weekend trio. Jonathan Capehart will serve as a co-anchor of the morning edition, and Ayman Mohyeldin will be among the hosts of a new evening edition, airing at 6 p.m. ET. Ali Velshi also will expand his show to three hours on the weekends.
In daytime, Ana Cabrera Reports will expand to two hours, from 10 a.m. ET to noon, and Chris Jansing Reports will shift to noon ET to 2 p.m. Katy Tur will add another hour to her anchoring duties from 2 p.m. ET to 4 p.m.
As MSNBC prepares to be spun off from Comcast, in a transaction expected to be completed later this year, it is also consolidating operations to New York and Washington, D.C.. Operations will be closed in Miami, meaning the end of José Díaz-Balart Reports and The Katie Phang Show. Díaz-Balart will continue to anchor NBC Nightly News on weekends, and Phang will remain at MSNBC as a legal correspondent.
Given the separation of NBC News from MSNBC, Kutler also confirmed plans to establish a bureau in Washington, D.C., with the network having its own team of national and international correspondents.
