MSNBC reset its lineup earlier this year. All In with Chris Hayes remained a focal point of the reset, however, with the network showing that it believes in the program.
Hayes occupies an interesting lane in the network’s ethos. He isn’t necessarily the firebrand that others at the network — or competitors — will feature in primetime. Furthermore, he doesn’t often catch the ire of conservative pundits as frequently as others — namely, Rachel Maddow and Jen Psaki — from MSNBC do.
I sat down to watch a recent episode of Hayes’ primetime program to get a feel for why MSNBC views him as such an important figure to its primetime success.
During Thursday’s episode of All In with Chris Hayes, I was struck by his monologue. Not the content, but the delivery.
It felt personable. The opening of the program didn’t feel as if Chris Hayes was talking into a camera. It felt as if he was talking to me. His mannerisms, his tone, and even at one point laughing out loud to accentuate his point felt like a somewhat foreign concept to other primetime shows I’ve watched in recent months.
I also didn’t feel as if the monologue was overproduced. Sometimes, the presentation of these lengthy monologues can feel like the producer has ADHD and just had Red Bull injected into their veins. The idea being that if we don’t make a camera cut or have a motion graphic every one and a half seconds, the viewers who also have the attention span of a brussel sprout will find the content boring and change to something else.
But that wasn’t the case for this MSNBC show. The pacing felt…normal? The monologue allowed Hayes to breathe a little bit. It wasn’t rushed or overly rehearsed.
However, it did feel like it stuck to an over-reliance on outside media to prove a point, rather than a poignant statement from the host, something I’ve decried about the cable news genre in the past. Furthermore, I felt as if Hayes had relatively the same point throughout a nearly 10-minute monologue: ICE — under the direction of Donald Trump — has gone too far. He accentuated that point by pointing out that the growing sentiment around the country agreed with the MSNBC host’s point.
That point was driven home — excessively, in my view — throughout the monologue.
Additionally, there was a portion of the show when Chris Hayes featured an update on what Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had said in response to comments made by Vice President JD Vance about the state of unrest in the city regarding ICE raids. I thought it was a brilliant use of real-time information and breaking news that wasn’t solely reliant on Hayes’ view on the matter, as much as it was a showcase Bass’s.
Later in the program, Chris Hayes sat down for an interview with journalist Alistair Kitchen, who claims he was deported after reporting on the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. Before the interview, Hayes shared that U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed that the Australian was deported for lying on an immigration application, in a nod to fairness.
Throughout the discussion, Hayes allowed Kitchen to be a storyteller, rather than an interview subject. I thought the MSNBC host allowed his guest to serve as the star throughout the conversation. The conversation didn’t hinge on Hayes’ ego as the star of the show or the world’s best interviewer. It was more centered on getting the story out. Which felt like quite the change for a cable news primetime show.
And that was my prevailing thought about All In with Chris Hayes. That Hayes was almost an ego-less figure that was more interested in the story, subject, and topic at hand rather than how much influence he could have on the audience — whether they be at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or at 123 Main Street.
I understand why MSNBC views Hayes as a star. I sometimes watch these cable news programs through a strong lens of cynicism. This program renewed my faith in the medium.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
