MS Now, the liberal cable news network known until last November as MSNBC, on Wednesday announced its first significant programming changes since being spun off as part of a new media company called Versant.
The network announced that Morning Joe, its flagship breakfast program, will shift back from being four hours to three hours, as Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, married co-hosts, have talked about the strain of hosting a four-hour-long show every day.
Taking one of those hours will be a new two-hour-long morning show from 9 to 11am hosted by Stephanie Ruhle, the longtime MS Now anchor who currently hosts a show at 11pm. The late-night show will now be hosted by Ali Velshi, whose weekend show will be taken over by Jacob Soboroff.
Ana Cabrera, who anchored a 10am news show for MS Now, will leave the network as part of the changes, which go into effect in June.
There will also be a new co-host of the network’s 7pm show the Weeknight, which replaced Joy Reid’s program. Luke Russert, the son of legendary Meet the Press moderator, Tim Russert, will now co-host the show along with Symone Sanders Townsend and Michael Steele. Alicia Menendez, who is currently part of the hosting trio, will get her own show from 12 to 2pm every day. (The network’s current 12pm anchor, Chris Jansing, will switch to a reporting role.)
Chris Hayes, the MS Now host, will also go back to hosting his 8pm show five days per week, rather than four.
Rebecca Kutler, the president of MS Now, tied the changes to the upcoming midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.
Many staffers who work on the affected shows will be able to move into new roles at the company, she said in a memo to employees. She said the company’s overall staff count would grow by the end of the year.
“I am confident that these changes will make what is already a successful lineup even stronger in the future,” she wrote in the memo. “We are fortunate to have so many exceptional journalists on our air, online and behind the scenes.”
MS Now’s parent company, Versant, which also includes networks like CNBC and the Golf Channel, reported earnings for the first time earlier this month, announcing that its total revenue for 2025, $6.69bn, would have come in 5.3% lower than the previous year.
But Versant chief executive, Mark Lazarus, said that MSNBC had achieved significant growth in viewership since the name change in November. In February, the network averaged 1.4 million total viewers in primetime, up 20% from the previous year, the company said.
Still, the network’s ratings have been weakest during the daytime, which the changes announced Wednesday are intended to address.
In a post on X, Cabrera said she “decided to make a change” by leaving the network and will share more information about her future plans soon. “My goal has always been to educate and inform and shine light, to hold people in power accountable, people on all sides of the political aisle and non-politicians as well, to be a government watchdog, to bring you compelling stories from across a broad range of news and to always seek the truth, following the facts wherever they lead,” she wrote. “That’s what I’ve always done, and what I will continue to do.”
(The media newsletter Status first reported many of these planned changes.)
