Alex Wagner Tonight
GenrePolitical news/opinion program
Directed byRob Katko
Presented byAlex Wagner
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerMatthew Alexander
Production locationNew York City
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time60 minutes
Original release
NetworkMSNBC
ReleaseAugust 16, 2022 (2022-08-16) –
present
Related
The Rachel Maddow Show

Alex Wagner Tonight is an American liberal news and opinion television program hosted by Alex Wagner. It premiered on MSNBC on August 16, 2022, and airs on Tuesdays through Fridays as a substitute for The Rachel Maddow Show (which, since May 2022, has only aired on Monday nights).

Guest hosts for the series include Ali Velshi, Alicia Menendez, Ari Melber and Ayman Mohyeldin.

History

From February to April 2022, as part of her new contract with NBCUniversal, Rachel Maddow took an extended hiatus from her MSNBC program The Rachel Maddow Show in order to focus on other film and podcast projects, with rotating guest hosts filling in for her. Upon Maddow's return, she announced that she would only host the show on Monday nights beginning in May, and continue to feature guest hosts throughout the rest of the week.[1][2]

At this point, The Rachel Maddow Show was retitled MSNBC Prime on Tuesday through Friday nights, but retained the same staff and overall format.[3] Average viewership of the hour as MSNBC Prime was lower than that of The Rachel Maddow Show, but still ahead of timeslot competitor CNN Tonight (a replacement of Cuomo Prime Time with rotating hosts after Chris Cuomo was fired from the network)[4] and behind Fox News Channel's Hannity.[5]

In June 2022, MSNBC announced that MSNBC Prime would be replaced by a new show hosted by Alex Wagner beginning on August 16.[5] On August 3, MSNBC announced that the program would be titled Alex Wagner Tonight.[6]

Wagner stated that the show would aim to combine Maddow's "intellectual rigor and informative analysis" with aspects that are representative of her own personal experiences, including more segments in the field and segments on climate change, immigration, and race. The program retains some of Maddow's staff.[7] The series premiere of Alex Wagner Tonight—which featured guests Mark Leibovich, Adam Kinzinger, and Joyce Vance, as well as coverage of Wyoming's Republican primary—was seen by around 2 million viewers.[8]

Since 2024, the program also airs a recap on Sunday as part of Prime Weekend, which also recaps from The Rachel Maddow Show, Deadline: White House, The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, All In with Chris Hayes, The ReidOut and Inside with Jen Psaki.

References

  1. ^ Atkinson, Claire (January 31, 2022). "Rachel Maddow to take temporary break from her MSNBC show to work on movie and podcast projects". Business Insider. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  2. ^ Bauder, David (April 11, 2022). "Rachel Maddow returns to MSNBC, will switch to once a week". Associated Press.
  3. ^ "'MSNBC Prime' becomes 'Rachel Maddow' replacement four days a week". NewscastStudio. Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  4. ^ Stelter, Brian (6 December 2021). "With Chris Cuomo gone from CNN, another cable news time slot is up for grabs". CNN. Archived from the original on 2021-12-06. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  5. ^ a b Hipes, Patrick (2022-06-27). "Alex Wagner To Take Over Rachel Maddow's Time Slot At MSNBC". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-06-27.
  6. ^ "Alex Wagner's New MSNBC Show Will Be Titled Alex Wagner Tonight". Adweek.com. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  7. ^ Johnson, Ted (2022-08-14). "Alex Wagner Talks About Her Debut As Permanent MSNBC Primetime Host: "This Is Going To Be A Different Show"". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-08-18.
  8. ^ Johnson, Ted (2022-08-17). "Alex Wagner Draws Solid 2 Million Viewers To Debut Of MSNBC Primetime Show; 'Hannity' Tops Timeslot". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-08-18.
Preceded byAll In with Chris Hayes MSNBC Weekday Lineup (Tuesdays-Fridays) .mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0} 9:00–10:00 p.m. (ET) midnight – 1:00 a.m. (ET) (replay) 4:00–5:00 a.m. (ET) (replay) Succeeded by The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell Way Too Early with Jonathan Lemire
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