MSNBC Changes Up Dayside…Removes Yet Another Hour of News…Adds More Progressive Hours
MSNBC has changed up its dayside schedule. On the one hand this does create clear definitive lines between its news anchors and its non news anchors with the newsies being grouped together from 9-1pm ET. On the other hand the network has managed to drop yet another hour of news for Progressive POV analysis.
Look at this…
1 PM – Ronan Farrow
2 PM – Joy Reid
3 PM – The Cycle
4 PM – Alex Wagner
5 PM – Ed Schultz
6 PM – Al Sharpton
7 PM – Chris Matthews
8 PM – Chris Hayes
9 PM – Rachel Maddow
10 PM – Lawrence O’Donnell
Um…does anyone else notice the complete lack of originality in this lineup? It is almost universally monotone in structure. Excepting Schultz’s fire and brimstone, Matthews’ wonkiness, and the blank slate that Ronan Farrow still basically is, you could swap these hosts and their shows around without any significant flow disruption occurring from a content standpoint. Does anyone at 30 Rock see the absolute redundancy piled upon redundancy potential at work here?
I am having a very hard time squaring this lineup with Phil Griffin’s discussion about broadening his network’s coverage this year. This lineup isn’t built for that. It is built to double down on that big Progressive bet Griffin made a few years ago. It may lock in those progressives but I fear it will lock out everyone else looking for a bit more diversity of subject matter.
Inside Cable News 
January 27, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Boring… Each show will basically be a carbon copy of the next. Say what you will about Fox News, their shows tend to have some unique DNA. Seems like MSNBC doesn’t get that.
January 27, 2014 at 12:31 pm
Those coming to MSNBC know what to expect. Just gives them more of what they want. Others already know to look elsewhere.
Bottom line, Todd still the best for non-progressives, Farrow a hope.
January 27, 2014 at 1:16 pm
“It may lock in those progressives but I fear it will lock out everyone else looking for a bit more diversity of subject matter.”
There is no “diversity of subject matter” on cable TV any more –
including cable news. Cable TV is a ever increasing hodgepodge of niche markets where an ever increasing numbers of channels broadcast an ever decreasing selection of programs. Cable news in the early 1990’s had only CNN. In the late 1990’s we added FNC and MSNBC. Now we have ‘Fusion’, BBC World, HLN, AJAM, Telemundo and more on the way.
Roger Ailes picked up on the niche trend early and decided to broadcast only to conservatives. MSNBC, after years of flailing about, took the other side of the political spectrum and went progressive – or as I like to call it liberal. CNN has chosen to take it’s two American channels almost completely out of news and go with documentaries and reality shows. The remaining straight news market will continue to splinter as ‘Fuson’ goes for a young audience and AJAM goes for a high end ‘quality’ news market and Telemundo to the Spanish market etc.
I don’t see this trend ending anytime soon. Broadcasting general news, sports, entertainment crime etc., on one channel, is becoming history in the same way broadcasting news on none cable news channels is becoming history. Time to move on. it’s 2014, not 1994.
January 27, 2014 at 1:28 pm
^^’none cable news’ should be ‘non cable news’ Sorry.
January 27, 2014 at 1:30 pm
FNC’s 1pm show is basically the lite version of The Kelly File so FNC does do conservative POV in the afternoons just as MSNBC does liberal POV in the afternoons.
I do agree though that most of MSNBC’s opinion shows are exactly the same. Now at 4pm has become so generic compared to when it was on at 12pm.
January 27, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Has Ronan’s show been named yet?
January 27, 2014 at 4:56 pm
MR. WIZARD
January 27, 2014 at 5:00 pm
“Time to move on. it’s 2014, not 1994.”
You can’t get a SPUD QUALITY IN CABLE NEWS merit badge with that attitude.
January 27, 2014 at 5:11 pm
Outside of a POV filter, If you don’t value fairness, balance, and accuracy in a cable news channel, then you’re tossing out important standards.
January 27, 2014 at 6:44 pm
Has Ronan’s show been named yet?
I don’t know, but they could hire back Martin Bashir, partner him with Ronan Farrow, and call it…..(drumroll)….Ronan and Martin’s Laugh-in.
January 27, 2014 at 6:46 pm
^
Forgot to add this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qRZvlZZ0DY
January 28, 2014 at 9:31 am
Great line up! I don’t know, say what you will, but given what the other cable shows have at present…Lousy/lying Fox News, crappy CNN, MSNBCs lineup is just what the doctor ordered. Love all the truth tellers on MSNBC! Thats what you all call “boring?” Give me a break. Dr. Rachel Maddow’s ratings have gone through the roof of late topping Fox News,,,and that’s a good thing. The commenters here obviously do not care for MSNBCs anchors. A few weeks ago, Lawrence O’Donnel featured as a guest segment, Mr. Ronin Farrow. Was I surprised! He did a smashup job! He has a brain, as all MSNBCs anchors have–b r a i n s…and smarts. That’s a good thing. I wouldn’t watch Fox News for anything in the world. In fact, Fox is stricken from our household.
I am very happy with this lineup!
January 28, 2014 at 9:35 am
I gather all the “brain-smarts” on MSNBC are too much for commenters here to take. This must be the case why people here “diss” MSNBC so very much.
More and more prop;le are becoming progressives and that hurts a lot of people I read.
January 28, 2014 at 12:31 pm
For a progressive politics channel it doesn’t matter. Their programmed is a bit one dimensional but it works for them.