Is there an opening for reinvention, or at least modernization, of the cable news formula? If so, the opportunity is at 9 o'clock Eastern.
Fox has had Sean Hannity successfully hosting its 9pm hour for more than a quarter century. CNN has been trying out different hosts ever since Chris Cuomo was fired last December. And MSNBC has made a big bet on Alex Wagner, who debuted a new show in the time slot on Tuesday evening.
MSNBC's 9pm renovation was born of necessity -- Rachel Maddow was supremely burnt out. Network executives convinced her to keep hosting "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Mondays. After months of uncertainty, Wagner was tapped to run the hour Tuesdays through Fridays.
In interviews, Wagner spoke of the ways she will approach the time slot differently than Maddow, for example by taping stories in the field and trying to "widen the lens" in terms of bookings. Tuesday's show was mostly standard prime time fare, however, which made sense for two reasons: To appeal to Maddow's regular audience and to cover Liz Cheney's defeat in Wyoming's GOP primary. Wagner interviewed Mark Leibovich, Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Joyce Vance, and checked in with Steve Kornacki for primary updates.
Over on CNN, this week's 9pm host Alisyn Camerota held forth with panels of guests, with John King at the Magic Wall with Wyoming news. In recent months the in-person panel has been a signature feature of "CNN Tonight." (As any producer will tell you, face-to-face roundtable conversations are much more dynamic than remote chats in boxes.) The anchor rotation has included Laura Coates, Sara Sidner, and Kasie Hunt. CNN CEO Chris Licht has said that a new 9pm program will be rolled out in the fall.
Over on Fox, Hannity opened his show by bashing the DOJ, FBI, CNN, MSNBC, and so forth. He said that "Liz Cheney, it seems, is trying to get ahead of the loss with a new narrative of being the biggest Trump hater in the country." He pooh-poohed talk of a Cheney presidential run, saying that "if she can't win Wyoming, she's not going to win any other red state that I can think of," and he later pivoted to Pennsylvania and mounted a defense of his friend Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Some nights these programs make different meals out of entirely different ingredients, but on Tuesday they were all cooking with the same: Wyoming, Cheney, Trump, and the classified documents scandal. Still: Midway through the hour, when the banner on CNN said "TRUMP FACES GREATEST TEST YET OF HIS ABILITY TO SURVIVE SCANDAL," the banner on Fox said "TRUMP ALLIES TARGETED BY AN OUT-OF-CONTROL FBI."
A "highly experimental new era"
Wagner's Tuesday-through-Friday shift is "ushering in a highly experimental new era for one of the most pivotal time slots in cable news," WaPo's Jeremy Barr wrote Tuesday. MSNBC president Rashida Jones told him that "we're giving her the time and space to grow. This is a long investment because I think Alex is incredibly talented."
Wagner opened "Alex Wagner Tonight" by addressing Maddow's fans and saying "I hope to live up to the incredibly high standard she has set in covering the stories of the day and bringing context to this moment that we are living through together." Then she teased her upcoming segments – but the teleprompter apparently contained some outdated text. (After watching the video a couple of times, I think she started to read a script from a rehearsal show last week.) She raised her hands to get the control room's attention, then pivoted to her intro about Cheney's fate in the primary.
Fifteen minutes later, before tossing to break, Wagner called it a "case of the technical gremlins." She said "we hope the rest of the night will be smooth sailing, America, but this is live TV and it has its charms." Yes, yes it does!
>> TVNewser's A.J. Katz has more about the debut here...
>> Karen K. Ho wrote for The Cut about Wagner and the fact that she is "the only Asian American helming a prime-time cable news program..."
>> No show should be judged based on a single day or week's ratings. Maddow's recent substitutes have averaged a bit more than half her Monday audience, which is a testament to Maddow's unique standing with the MSNBC base. Hannity, meanwhile, has been firmly #1 at 9pm, both in total viewers and in the 25-54 demo...
Fox's anti-Cheney approach
VP Dick Cheney was a hero on Fox twenty years ago, but Liz Cheney is a villain on Fox today. "The voters are saying they've had enough -- and that it's time to bury the tragic Bush-Cheney era once and for all," Laura Ingraham said in the 10pm hour on Tuesday. Ingraham also worked in a jab at the media, saying that "as she is lionized by the press for her anti-Trump crusade," President Biden "is robbing us blind."
Ingraham's program showed about five minutes of Cheney's concession speech, then cut away to guests who ridiculed her. CNN and MSNBC stuck with the speech in full. Of note: Fox's coverage did include Cheney telling supporters that she could have easily won the primary – "the path was clear" – but "it would've required that I go along with President Trump's lie about the 2020 election. It would've required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take."
Harriet Hageman did take that path, and she won the primary, crushing Cheney...
>> "Cheney's speech here tonight is a warning," Robert Costa of CBS said: "A warning of 'crisis' and 'lawlessness' if election deniers and conspiracies are allowed to gain a stronger foothold in American democracy. Warns that 'poisonous lies' can destroy nations and the United States is vulnerable..."
>> "Tonight should be a celebration by principled conservatives," David Gergen said on "Don Lemon Tonight." At long last, Gergen said, "we have someone who can command the national microphone and take the case to the country to take the future away from Trump and the minions around him..."
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