MSNBC Taps Washington Post's Jackie Alemany as ‘Weekend' Co-Host
MSNBC is, like other cable-news mainstays, giving roundtable shows a harder spin.
Jackie Alemany, who has logged stints covering politics at both CBS News and The Washington Post, will move to MSNBC, where she will serve as co-host of one of its 'The Weekend' panel programs and as a Washington correspondent. Alemany will anchor a morning version of 'The Weekend' alongside Jonathan Capehart, who has worked Saturdays and Sundays for MSNBC for the past few years, and Eugene Daniels, the Politico correspondent whose move to MSNBC was confirmed Monday.
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The new host unveiled her new role Tuesday on 'Morning Joe.'
'Jackie has built a reputation of accountability journalism covering the nation's capital from both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue,' said Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC's president, in a statement. 'Her addition as a co-host of 'The Weekend' in the mornings, alongside Eugene Daniels and Jonathan Capehart, solidifies this trio as a trusted roundtable of experts and insiders our audience is looking forward to waking up with every Saturday and Sunday.'
Alemany's hire is just the latest personnel move by Kutler, who has wasted little time in overhauling the network as it grapples with being a progressive monitor of an era when conservative politics hold considerable sway and as MSNBC prepares to be spun off along with other cable networks into a new publicly-traded entity, sundering its long-held ties with NBC News. The network has, like rival CNN, had to contend with a downturn in viewership following the 2024 election. Both outlets have overhauled their TV lineups in response.
The executive, who decided to replace Joy Reid at 7 p.m. with the trio of Symone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez and Alex Wagner at 9 p.m. with Jen Psaki, has vowed to establish a separate newsgathering apparatus for MSNBC. Alemany will have a focus on fact-finding. 'I'm thrilled to join MSNBC's cohort of exceptional reporters and journalists in covering Washington during this critical period for fair and unflinching journalism,' she said in a statement. 'MSNBC continues to provide much needed context and insight to consequential stories, and the network's investment in original reporting and its rapidly expanding Washington bureau signals its ambitions and commitment to viewers and agenda-setting journalism as a whole.'
MSNBC is expanding its use of panel shows in tandem with its two main competitors. At Fox News Channel, the roundtable program 'The Five' is typically the most-watched hour on the schedule, and the network's grid also has room for 'The Big Weekend Show' and 'Outnumbered.' CNN has gained some traction with the 10 p.m. panel program 'NewsNight,' anchored by Abby Phillip.
News executives like the format because it's not reliant on a single personality and allows networks to showcase many different correspondents, who, if they grow popular enough, might be moved into a program all their own.
In some ways, MSNBC is coming full circle on roundtables. In the middle of last decade, MSNBC launched a mid-afternoon hour called 'The Cycle,' which relied on co-hosts including at the time relative unknowns such as Ari Melber, S.E. Cupp, Steve Kornacki, Touré, Krystal Ball and Abby Huntsman. Many members of that group went on to bigger cable-news assignments.
MSNBC is also creating an evening edition of 'The Weekend' that will be led by Ayman Mohyeldin, who had been anchoring weekend primetime hours. Co-hosts have yet to be named.
Alemany had recently been assigned to the White House for the Washington Post, and has contributed to coverage of the second Trump administration's efforts to restructure the federal government. She has also covered the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, and founded and led the early-morning Post newsletter now known as the Early Brief. She was a member of a Washington Post team that received the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the January 6 attack.
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