MSNBC has enlisted frequent contributor and ‘Kamala Harris expert’ Eugene Daniels to its lineup of on-air talent after Joy Reid’s firing last week.
Daniels, 36, a White House correspondent for Politico, will step in to host ‘The Weekend,’ the network confirmed Monday.
The Saturday and Sunday morning show’s current hosts – Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend – are set to assume the weeknight 7pm slot left behind by Reid.
The development is the latest in a massive lineup rejigger said to be masterminded by new boss Rebecca Kutler, who replaced Rashida Jones last month.
The latter was the first black woman to ever run a major news station, a stint that lasted three years.
Since then, the left-leaning station has been met with plummeting ratings, paving the way for The ReidOut’s cancellation on February 24.
The move was accompanied with others that saw Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin lose their respective shows as well, though the latter two will be moving to weekend shows.
Daniels – a self-purported ‘Walking Beyoncé Encyclopedia’ – will be joined by The Washington Post’s Capehart and another co-host yet to be named, at a time when MSNBC is looking to address double-digit ratings declines.
Eugene Daniels, 36, will step in to host ‘The Weekend,’ MSNBC confirmed Monday. The journalist – previously of Politico and a frequent MSNBC contributor – is seen relishing the opportunity on Monday’s Morning Joe.
A former college football star with a distinctly flamboyant style, Daniels is set to be added to the permanent lineup this spring after already serving as a Morning Joe contributor for four years
Joy Reid weeps as she breaks silence on MSNBC firing
‘Thank you. You guys put me on TV all the time, so now they just stuck me there,’ Daniels said of his new gig during an appearance on Morning Joe Monday, telling hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough ‘this is all your fault.’
He first appeared on MSNBC as a contributor in 2021, after signing with Politico in 2018, and has joined the network more than 100 times since.
Known for his flamboyant attire and accompanying attitude, he went on to cover the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaigns – the latter of which saw him become a sort of breakout star.
In an interview with The Poynter Institute the day before Donald Trump’s win, Daniels recalled how he was told by an old boss during his days as a reporter in Colorado Springs that ‘[his] voice [was] too black’ for the role.
‘[The experience] taught me, one: Racism is alive and well. It was 2014 maybe, so it was a completely different world in which you didn’t say much,’ he explained at the time.
‘You kind of took it and moved on, which is what I did. I left very confused and hurt.
‘What I took from that is a lot of people are going to have a lot to say, and you don’t always have to listen.’
A few weeks before the feature – titled ‘Meet Eugene Daniels, Politico’s Kamala Harris expert’ – Daniels found himself one of three black journalists allowed to interview Harris on September 17 in Philadelphia.
This saw him face to face with a woman he was tasked with covering by his Politico bosses in 2020 – a beat he told Poynter that he took up proudly.
The morning show’s current hosts – Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele, and Symone Sanders-Townsend – are set to assume the 7pm slot left behind by Reid as a result, a move that elevates three people of color to primetime
Since then, MSNBC has been met with subpar ratings, paving the way for Reid’s firing. The move was accompanied with others that saw Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin lose their shows, though the latter two will now be joining the Weekend with Daniels
Maddow hits out at MSNBC’s ‘indefensible’ Joy Reid cancelling
‘The ReidOut premiered on July 20, 2020 and raked in nearly 3 million viewers per episode, but by February 20, the number was at 778,000.
In February 2021, the network averaged 1.4 million total viewers during the day and 2.9 million during primetime – numbers that now are down to just 613,000 and 1 million viewers, respectively.
‘They were like, there’s no better example of new power than this Black woman becoming No. 2. I was very excited, and I was very happy with that,’ he said.
‘And then they came to me and they’re like, “We want you to do that, but we also want you to do that as a member of the Playbook team that we’re currently building.”‘
Daniels added, hours before Harris went on to lose the election. ‘Harris was always going to be kind of an important figure. I think a lot of people didn’t know how important, obviously.’
In the weeks before, amid Harris’s whirlwind campaign, pieces about Daniels presented him as having ‘fashion sense that mirrors his bold style of reporting’ – and being the ‘breakout star’ of the 2024 election.
The journalist was once a defensive lineman for Colorado State University, committing to the D1 school’s football team with a letter of intent in 2007.
He played for two seasons, before his career was cut short by a shoulder injury.
Daniels is set to head the revamped Weekend show with Capehart and the third, unnamed host, while Mohyeldin will be part of a new evening edition of ‘The Weekend’
Daniels is seen here on a November edition of NBC News’s Meet the Press, after becoming a breakout star during Kamala Harris’s campaign
He came out as gay in 2016, and in 2022 was elected treasurer of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
He’s set to head the revamped Weekend show with Capehart and the third, unnamed host, while Mohyeldin will be part of a new evening edition of ‘The Weekend.’
Phang, previously the host the soon-to-be cancelled Katie Phang Show, will remain with MSNBC as a legal analyst.
Reid’s last show aired last Monday. She will not be staying with the network, staffers said.
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