Jen Psaki, for example, will host the new podcast The Blueprint, which will chronicle the Democratic party’s path out of the electoral wilderness. Meanwhile, Joy Reid plans to pay close attention to how Trump fulfills the many promises he made on the campaign trail about how he’ll address the economy, education and other hot-button issues.
Elsewhere, Chris Hayes will spearhead a recurring segment called Here is What is True, while The Beat’s Ari Melber also plans to be on the fact-checking beat; Nicole Wallace plans additional installments of her American Autocracy segments on Deadline: White House; Lawrence O’Donnell will set aside time on The Last Word to analyze Congress’ role in Trump’s first 100 days; and Stephanie Ruhle will continue her exploration of America’s many and varied billionaires via her Money, Power, Politics segment.
MSNBC’s full-court press on chronicling the launch of the second Trump administration follows a turbulent post-election period during which the network experienced significant ratings declines as weary viewers tuned out of news. Its flagship morning show Morning Joe also suffered backlash—and viewership drops—after co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski announced that they had a private meeting with Trump in Florida.
“Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different,” Brzezinski noted at the time. “And that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him.”
While MSNBC’s ratings haven’t completely bounced back to their pre-election heights, the network did see gains during the week where the calendar turned from 2024 to 2025. And that momentum could continue as Trump heads back into the Oval Office and the impacts of his administration become more keenly felt.
Looming over the rest of the year, of course, is MSNBC’s impending split from the NBCUniversal News Group as part of SpinCo—the new venture that will house many of NBCUniversal’s cable assets, including CNBC. The process of unwinding both cable news networks is expected to take much of 2025 and could see MSNBC leaving its longtime home inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza for another location.