“The mission of MSNBC stays the identical, no matter who’s in workplace—lead with the details, share context,” Alicia Menendez tells Self-importance Honest of overlaying a second Trump time period in a brand new position for the community. “We’re overlaying this administration with out worry, with out favor, and with numerous espresso.”
Menendez, Symone Sanders Townsend, and Michael Steele are all making the massive transfer to MSNBC prime time from their weekend panel program, cohosting a brand new 7 p.m. present titled The Weeknight. It launches on Might 5, taking the slot beforehand held by Pleasure Reid, who has since departed the community and set up a Substack. The present will air for 2 hours on Monday and one hour from Tuesday by Friday. The growth of the Weekend franchise, which was launched with the trio in January 2024, comes as newly appointed MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler begins to place her mark on the community’s programming lineup.
And the three are able to tackle the problem of anchoring a present on weeknights, which can see them react to the flood of reports that’s come out of the White Home, and elsewhere, all through the day. Sanders Townsend factors out that all of them have gotten some expertise within the 7 p.m. slot since Reid’s exit. “We’ve all been internet hosting it and have gotten in sort of that muscle reminiscence.”
“We’re 16 months in, and Michael nonetheless likes to be like, ‘Effectively, I’m new right here,’” quips Menendez when requested about their dynamic as a trio. “Look, I’m only a brother making an attempt to determine all of it out. I don’t wish to step on anyone’s toes,” Steele, who has been a daily contributor to the community for greater than a decade, says. Sanders Townsend, who beforehand served because the chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris, provides, “It’s like we’re inviting you into our cool-kids desk to speak about all of it.”
All three of the hosts have been both instantly concerned in politics at a granular stage or round it to a point. Steele beforehand served because the lieutenant governor of Maryland and the chairman of the Republican Nationwide Committee; Sanders Townsend was a Democratic operative and adviser; and Menendez, who has been overlaying politics for years, can be the daughter of disgraced former senator Bob Menendez. When requested how they reply to complaints a few government-to-media pipeline, Sanders Townsend says, “We aren’t the primary, to be very clear, and we gained’t be the final.”
“And now apparently there’s a journalist-to-government pipeline. Whats up, Secretary Pete Hegseth,” Sanders Townsend additionally factors out, referencing the Fox Information weekend anchor turned high Pentagon official. She provides that the hosts’ expertise being “actually within the room” and round politics “helps us, frankly, join with not simply the viewers higher, however our visitors.”
“Should you’ve written speaking factors, for those who’ve been on the speaking factors, then you understand how to knock folks off the speaking factors,” Menendez says.
This dialog has been edited for size and readability.
Self-importance Honest: The launch of the brand new present is coming at a very unstable political second, a second Trump time period with ongoing authorized drama and constant institutional battles. How are you approaching this information cycle?
Michael Steele: Risky? Alicia, you assume it’s unstable proper now? It’s loopy. From my perspective, that’s what makes the dialog extra thrilling, to have the ability to discover recent angles about it. As a former elected official who ran a political celebration and actually has an appreciation of how these dynamics are enjoying out negatively for the nation, and the way will we discuss that, what I really like about what the three of us do is that we truly wish to discuss it. We don’t wish to get into the type of performative sort of dialog the place you’re not likely pulling again layers of it like an onion. Every layer you pull again, you continue to cry. That’s what we attempt to do. We attempt to assist folks perceive what’s occurring proper now and provides it context traditionally, politically, socially, culturally, and with some humor and seriousness and all that’s required to have an excellent dialog.
