Monday was not only a week until Inauguration Day, but one filled with media news. In addition to Jennifer Rubin quitting The Washington Post, the other top headlines were MSNBC announcing their $25-million-a-year woman (Rachel Maddow) would at least temporarily return to five days a week and, on a positive note, Fox News Channel announcing Will Cain will move from Fox & Friends: Weekend to weekdays for the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour.
In other moves, NBC named Garrett Haake, Vaughn Hillyard, and far-left activist/journalist Yamiche Alcindor as White House correspondents (with the current Biden White House trio of Peter Alexander, Gabe Gutierrez, and Kelly O’Donnell sticking around).
Our friends at TV Newser had the Fox News announcement about Cain (who also has had an eponymous podcast after joining Fox in 2020 from ESPN) taking the spot long held by Neil Cavuto:
Per Fox, The Will Cain Show will debut on Tuesday, Jan. 21—the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Cain plans to bring his podcast style to analysis of big news events and interviews with notable figures from the worlds of politics, business, culture, and sports.
“Will Cain brings years of experience to the 4 p.m. hour as an accomplished broadcaster and a lawyer,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement. “We look forward to adding his insights to what will no doubt be another historic news cycle ahead this year.”
In his own statement, Cain said: “It has been an honor to wake up with America these past four years, and I am thrilled to apply my background in news, law, entertainment, and business to help our viewers better understand the headlines through thought-provoking content and analysis every weekday afternoon.”
This left yet another hole on Fox & Friends: Weekend with Cain’s departure coming two months after Pete Hegseth was nominated for Secretary of Defense.
Fox filled one vacancy along Rachel Campos-Duffy as Charlie Hurt -- who joined the MRC on its 2024 post-election cruise -- would depart The Washington Times to commit to hosting duties full-time.
Variety’s Brian Steinberg had the exclusive on Maddow, revealing she’d leave her back-breaking one a day week of primetime hosting duties to return for a strenuous “five nights a week at that hour as part of a broader move by MSNBC to draw viewership to its coverage of the first 100 days of the Trump administration.”
Alex Wagner — who took over Tuesday through Friday nights in the 9:00 p.m. Eastern hour — will be “traveling the U.S. and overseas in a bid to talk to both newsmakers tied to and people affected by Trump polices during his critical first weeks in office.”
More practically, one could spin this as Wagner being sent out to play zookeeper venturing out into real America (or the one MSNBC concocts) and tapping on the proverbial class of Americans outside her bourgeoisie bubble.
