MSNBC on Tuesday named Steve Kornacki the new host of “Up,” a weekend morning panel discussion program that is about to be vacated by its original host, Chris Hayes.
Mr. Kornacki will take over when Mr. Hayes moves to the 8 p.m. time slot on weekdays, a change that was announced by the cable news channel last week.
MSNBC did not specify a start date for Mr. Kornacki, but the channel has previously said that Mr. Hayes will start at 8 p.m. on April 1.
With the announcement on Tuesday, MSNBC is once again promoting from within. Mr. Kornacki, a senior political writer for Salon since 2010, has been a guest on the channel for years; in fact, as Salon’s editor in chief noted last year, the site actually approached him about the job after seeing him on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”
Last summer MSNBC made Mr. Kornacki, 33, a co-host of “The Cycle,” a 3 p.m. political conversation with three other young hosts, Touré, Krystal Ball and S.E. Cupp. The ratings for “The Cycle” have pleased MSNBC executives, despite the tough middle-of-the-day time slot, and Mr. Kornacki has been mentioned recently as a rising star at the channel.
MSNBC indicated on Tuesday that he would leave “The Cycle” to take on the new assignment, but did not immediately name a successor.
But the announcement resolves what viewers of “Up” have wanted to know since last week: would the in-depth talk show remain in some form, and if so, who would lead it?
“Up,” which was started 18 months ago in an expansion of MSNBC’s progressive-minded programming, is more influential than the Nielsen ratings imply. It had about 139,000 viewers ages 25 to 54 last month, but it attracts a fiercely loyal fan base that typically gets a Twitter hashtag, “#uppers,” trending online during every episode. “Up” also sets a tone for MSNBC’s weekend programming, and the president of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, often mentions Mr. Hayes when describing the future direction of MSNBC.
Mr. Griffin said in a statement on Wednesday, “I give so much credit to the ‘Up’ team who created appointment viewing on the weekends for us and some of the smartest conversations on television. Steve has a great political mind and his ability to connect with viewers made him a natural fit to continue driving that dialogue.”
Mr. Hayes wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, “Psyched to pass the ‘Up’ franchise to Steve Kornacki. #Uppers are in excellent hands.” A few minutes later Mr. Kornacki wrote, Mr. Hayes “and his team have built something pretty amazing. Excited to be stepping in.”
The channel’s chain of dominos started to fall last week when Ed Schultz, the former host of the 8 p.m. hour, announced that he was stepping aside. He will relocate to the weekends starting next month, enabling MSNBC to expand live political programming to the 5 and 6 p.m. hours on Saturday and Sunday. (Currently the channel runs documentaries at those times.)
MSNBC then named Mr. Hayes the new 8 p.m. host. Some at the channel had expected Ezra Klein, an MSNBC contributor and Washington Post columnist, to get the 8 p.m. job or the weekend morning job. The announcement about Mr. Kornacki on Tuesday suggested that the channel has something else in mind for him — perhaps a time slot in prime time on the weekends.
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/msnbc-announces-replacement-for-chris-hayes/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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