MSNBC

[Kemper]

MSNBC - if you are listening.  Please give Brian Williams "Meet the Press" when Chuck Todd's contract runs out.  And put Steve Kornacki in the 5:00 everyday slot.  Chuck Todd can take the 11:00 hour if you must keep him.

[annzeepark914]

Did Katy have her baby yesterday?

And speaking of KT, I vote for her to eventually replace Chuck on MTP Daily (heh...does anyone here love Chuck?)

[Kemper]

annzeepark...you are right!  I completely forgot Katy Tur since she will be gone for probably at least 6 weeks.  She would be the perfect choice for Meet the Press.  Asks tough questions and doesn't brag about being "exhausting" by all the breaking news or "busy news day" like C Todd does.  But I like Nicole Wallace, too.  Whodathinkit.  But.  I have been enjoying Brian Williams much more than I thought I would.  

[Ohwell]

I don't want Katy Tur taking over for Chuck Todd on MPT Daily because when she subs for him, the handoff banter between her and Ari Melber is painful to listen to. 

Speaking of Ari, I used to like him but now he's become more and more annoying trying to be so "hip" with his rap/hip hop schtick.  I want him gone now.   

[xaxat]

5 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Speaking of Ari, I used to like him but now he's become more and more annoying trying to be so "hip" with his rap/hip hop schtick.  I want him gone now.   

Ugh, the hip hop references really grate. And to make it worse, he seems so proud of himself for coming up with them.

[Ohwell]

3 minutes ago, xaxat said:

Ugh, the hip hop references really grate. And to make it worse, he seems so proud of himself for coming up with them.

I love it when some of his guests just give him blank stares when he makes those hip hop references.  They should all do that. 

[Medicine Crow]

22 minutes ago, Kemper said:

annzeepark...you are right!  I completely forgot Katy Tur since she will be gone for probably at least 6 weeks.  She would be the perfect choice for Meet the Press.  Asks tough questions and doesn't brag about being "exhausting" by all the breaking news or "busy news day" like C Todd does.  But I like Nicole Wallace, too.  Whodathinkit.  But.  I have been enjoying Brian Williams much more than I thought I would.  

Welcome to the "Brian Bus"!!!

[xaxat]

13 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

I love it when some of his guests just give him blank stares when he makes those hip hop references. 

Yeah, it's not that great a reference if you have to explain it.

[Milburn Stone]

2 hours ago, xaxat said:

Ugh, the hip hop references really grate. And to make it worse, he seems so proud of himself for coming up with them.

It's kind of his brand. Chris Hayes is known for insightful interviews; Rachel Maddow is known for incredibly deep research and unique angles that no one else will cover; Lawrence is known for his Congressional expertise (and, has he said it in the last five minutes, he wrote for The West Wing!); Brian is handsome, well-dressed, and the master of the bon mot (in his own mind); and Ari is known for...hip hop references.

[Ohwell]

20 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

It's kind of his brand. Chris Hayes is known for insightful interviews; Rachel Maddow is known for incredibly deep research and unique angles that no one else will cover; Lawrence is known for his Congressional expertise (and, has he said it in the last five minutes, he wrote for The West Wing!); Brian is handsome, well-dressed, and the master of the bon mot (in his own mind); and Ari is known for...hip hop references.

I think we all know it's his "brand," but it's still annoying.   

I also know what the other hosts are known for but they aren't as annoying to me. 

[Kemper]

I switched to CNN during the coverage of the Notre Dame fire; Matthews was upset, yes.  But he was kind of making it all about him and how he feels.  What we were witnessing was horrific enough without him interjecting himself into the story.  That is just me; I tend to carry things inside.  But CNN is usually my go-to for breaking news.  They start out with "just the facts" - MSNBC's personalities come out; and I think that may be part of the appeal for a lot of people.  Not knocking it; just not my cup of tea.

[Enigma X]

I like Ari and really think that he is an actual hip hop fan. Though some of his references go over my head, it does not bother me. And he is very smart with legal analysis.

[Jaded]

I think Ari has been progressively trying to work hip hop references in more frequently instead of having a few of them go a long way. More times then not when he tries to get one in during an interview the other person looks perplexed at first trying to decide if they want to respond or just move on with what they were already saying. The references seem rehearsed now instead seeming to be organic at first.

I can tolerate Chuck Toad a bit more when he's being self deprecating. I hate when he tries to act like he's smarter then his viewers and is doing us a favor by showing up to host MTP Daily. I rarely if ever watch MTP on Sundays.

[annzeepark914]

Chuck Toad...love it! But, speaking of the handoff banter, I wish they wouldn't do it. So, I hit the mute and read something while the nonsense drones on. I'm

[Milburn Stone]

3 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I think we all know it's his "brand," but it's still annoying.   

I also know what the other hosts are known for but they aren't as annoying to me. 

FWIW, I wasn't trying to tell anyone anything they don't know already. (Or that they should be less or more annoyed than they are.) It seems my little "survey" of the MSNBC primetime scene ticked you off, for which I'm sorry.

[Kitty Redstone]

I don't mind Ari's hip hop references except when he interrupts his guests to spout them out.  He's as bad as Chris Matthews at rudely interrupting people.  I'm somewhat amazed that either one of them can still book quality people. 

Ari's had George Lakoff on a couple of times and 1) only gave him a very brief amount of time then 2) proceeded to interrupt him over and over again.  It was tiresome for me as viewer; can't imagine what it was like for Lakoff. 

He does the same thing to Matt Miller (who my husband has labeled a Mii from Wii Sports), but since Matt's an MSNBC contributor maybe he has to do Ari's show from time to time?

[annzeepark914]

We've noticed (& been annoyed by) the amount of time these talk show hosts use up with their *lengthy* questions. And then, once their guest begins to answer, they start interrupting. We started yelling at the host to shut up (it's become a bit exhausting watching some of these shows, which is why we don't watch Hardball any more). Fortunately, Nicholle Wallace doesn't do this so I can watch her show in peace. Steve K is another good interviewer, as well as Katy.

[Milburn Stone]

14 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

We've noticed (& been annoyed by) the amount of time these talk show hosts use up with their *lengthy* questions. And then, once their guest begins to answer, they start interrupting. We started yelling at the host to shut up (it's become a bit exhausting watching some of these shows, which is why we don't watch Hardball any more). Fortunately, Nicholle Wallace doesn't do this so I can watch her show in peace. Steve K is another good interviewer, as well as Katy.

And this in turn sparks an epidemic of guests, in self-defense, never taking a moment's pause in their answers for fear that the host will jump right into their pause. Too many of the shows (this is true on CNN also) have turned into turf battles for "real estate" between host and guest, if real estate can be a metaphor for airtime. I've seen guests give answers that, if printed in a transcript, would look like one run-on sentence occupying an entire page.

[Ohwell]

11 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

FWIW, I wasn't trying to tell anyone anything they don't know already. (Or that they should be less or more annoyed than they are.) It seems my little "survey" of the MSNBC primetime scene ticked you off, for which I'm sorry.

Oh, no need to apologize, I wasn't ticked off.  The only one who truly ticks me off is Ari.  ☺️

[car54]

Kasie Hunt just announced that Katy Tur had her baby Saturday.

His name is Teddy--which is cute--Katy's middle name is Bear.

She looked very happy in the picture.   She waited so long to go out on maternity leave I won't be surprised to see her following the Mueller report when it gets released.     

[Ohwell]

6 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

And this in turn sparks an epidemic of guests, in self-defense, never taking a moment's pause in their answers for fear that the host will jump right into their pause.

The first person who comes to mind who does this is Jamiche Alcindor.  She talks so fast, she's gasping for breath and I keep yelling at her "slow down!"  I think she does it to get her comments in but she's another annoying one, lol.

[annzeepark914]

34 minutes ago, car54 said:

Kasie Hunt just announced that Katy Tur had her baby Saturday.

His name is Teddy--which is cute--Katy's middle name is Bear.

She looked very happy in the picture.   She waited so long to go out on maternity leave I won't be surprised to see her following the Mueller report when it gets released.     

Teddy Bear Tur...awww. I know that's not his official name, but I like it anyway 😊 Thanks for this happy news, car54.

[Ohwell]

One more thing about Ari and then I'll leave him alone, lol:  His Fall Back Fridays are cringeworthy.   Most of the guests look uncomfortable.

[Chloesmom]

Nice tweet from Brian Williams about Katy Tur's Teddy (and how he got here):

 

Looks like that's why Ayman Mohyeldin has been off too:

[car54]

Katy has a history of some issues with her parents, but yesterday I thought one of the people talking about it said there was another child--so I looked up Tony and he has a family history himself--and two kids from his prior marriage so Katy is a step mom!

https://www.earnthenecklace.com/tony-dokoupil-wiki-cbs-correspondent-katy-tur-husband/

Katy tweeted this morning that they are very sleep deprived already.

[Tom Holmberg]

On ‎4‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 5:48 PM, Ohwell said:

His Fall Back Fridays are cringeworthy.   Most of the guests look uncomfortable.

I always get a "I was born a poor Black child..." vibe from his attempts to be "cool."

[Kemper]

Alex Witt was showing cleavage again today.  That, paired with the pageant hair, makes her ripe for an SNL parody.  

[Ohwell]

15 minutes ago, Kemper said:

Alex Witt was showing cleavage again today.  That, paired with the pageant hair, makes her ripe for an SNL parody.  

I'm surprised SNL hasn't done one of her.  The only drawback for the parody is that I'm pretty sure they'd use Kate McKinnon and I'm tired of seeing her doing so many of the impersonations that someone else could do just as well, or better. 

[xaxat]

[Chloesmom]

It's take your child to work day today and weatherman Bill Karins had his daughter on.  She is absolutely adorable (and I know this isn't MSNBC connected but last night Chris Cuomo had his daughter on.  Oh goodness, she is his mini-me.  Shrink him down about 75% and slap a wig on him and they would be identical twins.  Really fun to watch).  

[xaxat]

[Kemper]

I think this network needs to rethink it's policy regarding on-air hosts promoting their private projects.  Chris Matthews was relentless hyping his book on Kennedy.  Lawrence O'Donnell had a book out but was pretty judicious when remarking on it.

Then we have Joe and Mika B.  His shilling of his "band" and Washington Post columns.  I guess the latter is not so bad considering it is newsworthy in some circles.  Mika's constant selling of her Know Your Value brand is the worst.  I go to MSNBC for my brand of political news commentary.  It is unprofessional when the hosts of any show treat their day job as merely a prop for their outside projects.  It is an automatic channel changer for me.

[Jaded]

It was kind of nice yesterday to tune into Ari's show and see Stephanie subbing for him instead. Since the report came out it seemed like he was all over MSNBC for awhile to the point where I was wishing he'd take a short vacation.

[car54]

Donnie Deutsch is getting his own show--Saturday Night Politics.through the election---they just announced it on Nicole's show.

He used to sub in on J Heil and Halperin's Bloomberg show a while ago and he was pretty good.

[Medicine Crow]

10 minutes ago, car54 said:

Donnie Deutsch is getting his own show--Saturday Night Politics.through the election---they just announced it on Nicole's show.

He used to sub in on J Heil and Halperin's Bloomberg show a while ago and he was pretty good.

Love him!!!

[oakville]

14 minutes ago, car54 said:

Donnie Deutsch is getting his own show--Saturday Night Politics.through the election---they just announced it on Nicole's show.

He used to sub in on J Heil and Halperin's Bloomberg show a while ago and he was pretty good.

He used to have a show on MSNBC but got fired after criticizing Keith Olbermann.

https://www.businessinsider.com/donny-deutsch-booted-from-msnbc-after-pissing-off-keith-olbermann-2010-4

Edited May 2, 2019 by oakville
Added a link.

[meowmommy]

27 minutes ago, car54 said:

He used to sub in on J Heil and Halperin's Bloomberg show a while ago and he was pretty good.

He was on that show so often, I was surprised to find out he wasn't actually one of the hosts.

32 minutes ago, car54 said:

Donnie Deutsch is getting his own show--Saturday Night Politics.through the election-

I was much more pleased to hear that Chuck Rosenberg is getting his own podcast.  I'd love to see MSNBC come up with a regular on-air show that features Chuck, Joyce Vance, Barbara McQuade, and Maya Wiley.  The amazing legal brain trust.

[car54]

43 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

He was on that show so often, I was surprised to find out he wasn't actually one of the hosts.

I was much more pleased to hear that Chuck Rosenberg is getting his own podcast.  I'd love to see MSNBC come up with a regular on-air show that features Chuck, Joyce Vance, Barbara McQuade, and Maya Wiley.  The amazing legal brain trust.

I think probably they think they've got that show with The Beat.

I bet Ari is going to be sad he was on vacation when all this Barr stuff happened.  He worked like 16 hrs a day the week the Mueller report was released.    I think there is more room for more people to talk about legal stuff in the news.

Shows I'd like to see--

1.   I agree on another legal perspective show.   Of the lawyers they have on staff I think probably Maya is the one who might be ready to host something.   I'd add Katie Phang, Harry Litman, it looks like possibly Preet is not under contract with CNN anymore and he's fantastic, and maybe Glenn Kirchner and Elie Mystal.

2.  I'd like to see some more diversity--they have a LOT of white people hosting.   I would love to see Tremayne Lee given the same sort of special opportunity that they give Richard Engel.     Tremayne has done some absolutely beautiful stories and he doesn't get that much exposure on MSNBC--I think he would be really good.

3.  I'd like to see a show on women's issues NOT hosted by Mika "know your value" Scarborough.     Maybe Stephanie or Yasmin or Katie Tur for something like that.    Could be legal stuff, Me Too, ERA, Equal pay....there is plenty of stuff to fill a show like that.

4. I'd like to see some kind of "on the road" show ---with special stories from people like Sobaroff, Atencio, Gadi Schwartz.

They do so many re-runs and filler shows I'd really like to see more new content that is not necessarily "breaking news" or just politics based.

I didn't know about Donnie and Olbermann.   I miss Olbermann.  He came back and did some online commentary during the election but gave it up---I still follow him on social media--it's all sports and helping get rescue dogs adopted now.    

[Jaded]

I don't remember Donny having an MSNBC show. I know he had that show The Big Idea on CNBC that started off well. For the last couple years or so the format changed and Donny's ego got too big for it to be entertaining anymore. I didn't know it was something he said about Olbermann that got it canceled though.

[annzeepark914]

3 hours ago, Jaded said:

I don't remember Donny having an MSNBC show. I know he had that show The Big Idea on CNBC that started off well. For the last couple years or so the format changed and Donny's ego got too big for it to be entertaining anymore. I didn't know it was something he said about Olbermann that got it canceled though.

All I remember is DD had a show that featured a variety of guests, and he always wore a lavender shirt. 

Keith's show, in its early days, was a lot of fun...especially when he went after O'Realllly. Then Keith's anger got the better of him.

[Milburn Stone]

16 hours ago, meowmommy said:

I'd love to see MSNBC come up with a regular on-air show that features Chuck, Joyce Vance, Barbara McQuade, and Maya Wiley.  The amazing legal brain trust.

OMG. From your mouth to Phil Griffin's ears.

[izabella]

18 hours ago, car54 said:

Shows I'd like to see--

I like the ideas you suggested.  I'd also really, really, really, really like to see at least an hour or two a day of just straight news, US and worldwide, no commentary or pundits, just news covering the events of the day across the spectrum of events, not solely politics.  Like "cable news" used to have. 

[car54]

1 hour ago, izabella said:

I like the ideas you suggested.  I'd also really, really, really, really like to see at least an hour or two a day of just straight news, US and worldwide, no commentary or pundits, just news covering the events of the day across the spectrum of events, not solely politics.  Like "cable news" used to have. 

I agree---I guess with MSNBC they figure we get that on NBC with the Nightly news but if they have 24 hours to fill, a daily or evening news fill would not be too much--I nominate the hour that Hardball has right now, or MTP Daily.    We meet the press all day on MSNBC so we don't need to MTP it more.     With the last school shooting, both CNN and MSNBC were all Mueller and politics,and I did not see any live coverage when it was happening.

[Kemper]

I don't know what kind of ratings the weekend lineup brings.  But.  By the time Saturday morning rolls around, the last thing I want to see is more round table discussions, hashing out the same stuff that has been hashed out all week.  Lots of times by the same people.  I don't even like Donny D all that much, but maybe his show will be different.  We can hope.

So yes to the above suggestions of having solid news hours; just without Alex Witt and her low-cut, loose tops.  I am sure there are some up-and-coming news personalities (emphasis on "news") that would love to do some hard news on the weekends, especially the mornings.

[meowmommy]

On 5/4/2019 at 6:54 AM, Kemper said:

I don't know what kind of ratings the weekend lineup brings.  But.  By the time Saturday morning rolls around, the last thing I want to see is more round table discussions, hashing out the same stuff that has been hashed out all week.

ITA.  I record AM Joy, but more often than not, I delete it unwatched, unless there's been a hot news story on Friday night.  She almost never gets A-list political interviews, even on Sundays when the politicians hit the morning shows, but two hours of the same talking heads regurgitating the same talking points that have been talked to death during the week.

CNN has developed a large stable of historical documentaries, both political and cultural, such as on the Nixon tapes and the series on the decades.  I don't see why MSNBC shouldn't come up something like that, instead of hours and hours of prison film, but then, I am a sucker for history and old footage.

[xaxat]

Former MSNBC regular Norah O'Donnell is now the anchor of the CBS Evening News. 

Can't wait to hear Mika take credit for teaching her her value.

[Tom Holmberg]

On ‎5‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 4:37 PM, meowmommy said:

I record AM Joy, but more often than not, I delete it unwatched, unless there's been a hot news story on Friday night.  She almost never gets A-list political interviews, even on Sundays when the politicians hit the morning shows, but two hours of the same talking heads regurgitating the same talking points that have been talked to death during the week.

She was good during the election controlling Republican clones regurgitating their talking points. Actually better that the weeknight hosts (who probably have to let them spew in order to get them to come back, though why they think we need to hear them I don't know). So I give her props for that, but it may have hurt her ability to get some guests.

[meowmommy]

1 minute ago, Tom Holmberg said:

She was good during the election controlling Republican clones regurgitating their talking points.

She actually was terrific, and that's when I became a big fan of hers.  She had multiple moments of brilliance, usually when subbing for one of the prime time hosts, in 2016.  She could give lessons to several hosts, including over at CNN, on how to manage a panel and how to shut down canned speeches.  

[Chloesmom]

I've seen a couple of articles that Heileman is in talks with MSNBC for his own show to join the Saturday night line up with Donny Deutsch.  I hope it happens, that would be a show I would watch.

[meowmommy]

12 hours ago, Chloesmom said:

I've seen a couple of articles that Heileman is in talks with MSNBC for his own show to join the Saturday night line up with Donny Deutsch.  I hope it happens, that would be a show I would watch.

I would rather have seen him get a show before Donny Deutsch, whose reason for being a political media presence I can't fathom.  My eyes are still rolling from all the Michael-Cohen's-best-friend routines. 

I assumed John Heilemann wasn't given a show after the Halperin fiasco because he had enough to keep himself busy with his program on Showtime and his many guest appearances on MSNBC, so I'm glad he's looking into it.