MSNBC used its lesser-watched dayparts to develop talent to move to primetime, the way God intended when he created cable news. That led to the creation of The Weeknight.
The new program — featuring Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez — was previously seen on the weekend. It was aptly named The Weekend. So, that’s why the new program is called The Weeknight. What a novel concept.
The Weeknight has a bit of a wonky schedule, airing for two hours on Monday night before only airing for one hour the remainder of the week. Each show starts at 7 PM ET.
I watched the debut episode on Monday evening to get a sense of how well a new show — albeit with a cast intricately familiar with one another — fared on its opening night. I’ve mentioned this several times before, and feel like it bears repeating: I don’t love judging shows earlier in their tenure. They deserve to find their footing a bit. So while I’m judging it on a slight curve, the fact that the hosts have worked together for a while gives me a little more leeway to judge it appropriately.
For the sake of brevity, I’ll focus on two separate segments, one in each hour. In the first segment of the show, the trio of hosts featured a conversation with former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) — who is now a political contributor at MSNBC — as well as contributor Brendan Buck.
During the segment, Symone Sanders Townsend was yelling. A lot. I don’t think she was trying to yell, but there’s a difference between passion and yelling. And a host has to be able to walk that tightrope. Which she didn’t do. She’s attempting to get her point across via volume instead of substance. It is something that virtually everyone struggles with in the early stages of their career.
There’s a feel throughout the conversation that Michael Steele is the quasi-elder statesman of the group. Which is natural, considering that he’s significantly older than his counterparts.
Alicia Menendez serves as the point guard of the show, setting up her co-hosts and contributors to star in the show.
But the visual presentation of the show is somewhat striking. The camera angles feel much closer surrounding the panel desk than others. To the point that one of the cameras set to focus on the panel is prominently displayed on the screen. The presentation feels somewhat similar to that of CNN NewsNight, hosted by Abby Phillip. It is, however, slightly different in that the table is a circle rather than an almost kidney bean shape, leading to better on-screen visuals.
In the second hour of the show, The Weeknight welcomed Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) joined the show to discuss a recent comment from President Donald Trump stating that he “didn’t know” if he had to uphold the Constitution.
Not only is Raskin a good guest to have on in general — as he serves as one of the highest-ranking Democrats in Congress — but he’s also a particularly good guest for this specific topic. Raskin spent nearly three decades as a Constitutional law professor at American University while simultaneously serving as a Constitutional lawyer. Whether you agree with him politically or not, the dude knows his stuff.
The hosts of The Weeknight asked good questions of Raskin, utilizing their time with the Congressman wisely and effectively.
But not always efficiently. Not to pick on Sanders Townsend, but in the middle portion of the conversation with Raskin, she took more than a minute to get a question out to the Maryland Representative, sort of meandering her way to the point of her question. The best questions — almost universally — see a lead-up followed by a question in two sentences or less. The pace of her question didn’t need to be quickened as much as the substance needed to be limited.
I would have liked to have seen just slightly more from Menendez throughout the episode. While she has a commanding presence while steering the ship, sometimes it does seem as if she’s more focused on making sure the ship stays on course than contributing her insight. Every time she spoke, it was clear that she was prepared about the topic, but I would have liked for her to showcase that knowledge just slightly more frequently.
Additionally, I loved the demeanor of Michael Steele throughout the episode. He felt extremely calm and polished. He didn’t present like a television news anchor or pundit. It didn’t feel as if he was all that preoccupied about how he came off as a television host as much as he was interested in talking substance more than anything, and presentation be damned. I’ll always champion focusing on content above all else.
Overall, I found the production of the show fascinating. The camera angles and depths created an intimate feel between those on screen and the viewer. The closeness of the assembled panel was striking.
The still frame above shows the closeness of the camera. You can see Menendez literally leaning in to listen to the remarks from Raskin, which feels rather angsty, despite it being a “friendly” interview.
Essentially, the one thing I wanted to see from the debut of this show was “Is there anything remarkable about The Weeknight? Is there anything that sets it apart from basically everything else on MSNBC, let alone the cable news sphere?
And the answer, to me, was a resounding yes. I thought the presence of Michael Steele was a differentiator, and the presentation was something that would attract eyeballs in the future. I can completely understand why MSNBC wanted to elevate The Weekend to The Weeknight.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
