The Hosts of MSNBC’s ‘The Weeknight’ Say They’ll Cover Trump 2.0 “Without Fear, Without Favor”

“The mission of MSNBC remains the same, regardless of who’s in office—lead with the facts, share context,” Alicia Menendez tells Vanity Fair of covering a second Trump term in a new role for the network. “We are covering this administration without fear, without favor, and with a lot of coffee.”

Menendez, Symone Sanders Townsend, and Michael Steele are all making the big move to MSNBC prime time from their weekend panel program, cohosting a new 7 p.m. show titled The Weeknight. It launches on May 5, taking the slot previously held by Joy Reid, who has since departed the network and set up a Substack. The show will air for two hours on Monday and one hour from Tuesday through Friday. The expansion of the Weekend franchise, which was launched with the trio in January 2024, comes as newly appointed MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler begins to put her mark on the network’s programming lineup.

And the three are ready to take on the challenge of anchoring a show on weeknights, which will see them react to the flood of news that’s come out of the White House, and elsewhere, throughout the day. Sanders Townsend points out that they all have gotten some experience in the 7 p.m. slot since Reid’s exit. “We’ve all been hosting it and have gotten in kind of that muscle memory.”

“We’re 16 months in, and Michael still likes to be like, ‘Well, I’m new here,’” quips Menendez when asked about their dynamic as a trio. “Look, I’m just a brother trying to figure it all out. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes,” Steele, who has been a regular contributor to the network for more than a decade, says. Sanders Townsend, who previously served as the chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris, adds, “It’s like we’re inviting you into our cool-kids table to talk about it all.”

All three of the hosts have been either directly involved in politics at a granular level or around it to some degree. Steele previously served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland and the chairman of the Republican National Committee; Sanders Townsend was a Democratic operative and adviser; and Menendez, who has been covering politics for years, is also the daughter of disgraced former senator Bob Menendez. When asked how they respond to complaints about a government-to-media pipeline, Sanders Townsend says, “We aren’t the first, to be very clear, and we won’t be the last.”

“And now apparently there’s a journalist-to-government pipeline. Hello, Secretary Pete Hegseth,” Sanders Townsend also points out, referencing the Fox News weekend anchor turned top Pentagon official. She adds that the hosts’ experience being “literally in the room” and around politics “helps us, frankly, connect with not just the viewers better, but our guests.”

“If you’ve written talking points, if you’ve been on the talking points, then you know how to knock people off the talking points,” Menendez says.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Vanity Fair: The launch of the new show is coming at a particularly volatile political moment, a second Trump term with ongoing legal drama and consistent institutional battles. How are you looking at approaching this news cycle?

Michael Steele: Volatile? Alicia, you think it’s volatile right now? It’s crazy. From my perspective, that’s what makes the conversation more exciting, to be able to find fresh angles about it. As a former elected official who ran a political party and really has an appreciation of how these dynamics are playing out negatively for the country, and how do we talk about that, what I love about what the three of us do is that we actually want to talk about it. We don’t want to get into the sort of performative kind of conversation where you’re not really pulling back layers of it like an onion. Each layer you pull back, you still cry. That’s what we try to do. We try to help people understand what’s happening right now and give it context historically, politically, socially, culturally, and with some humor and seriousness and all that’s required to have a good conversation.

Alicia Menendez: The mission of MSNBC remains the same, regardless of who’s in office—lead with the facts, share context. So we are covering this administration without fear, without favor, and with a lot of coffee.

Symone Sanders Townsend: We really think about adding context to what is happening. When you do a show on the weekend and you’re watching everything that’s happening all week, you have to pick and choose. You get time to say, Okay, we’ve seen it all. We’ve digested it all. This is what we think, and this is maybe a thread that nobody else pulled on. The difference between the weeknight is we are now going to be reacting in real time. We’ve had, obviously, lots of practice doing that over the years, but over the last couple of months, specifically, every single week, each one of us has been hosting the 7 p.m. hour. We’ve all been hosting it and have gotten in kind of that muscle memory, also bringing that same energy that we have on the weekend to our show because we are a conversation. It’s like we’re inviting you into our cool-kids table to talk about it all.

You have all worked together now for over a year. Are there any specific roles that you have fallen into naturally?

Menendez: We’re 16 months in, and Michael still likes to be like, “Well, I’m new here.”

Sanders Townsend: Michael’s still like, “Oh, you ladies know it. I’m just here.”

Steele: Look, I’m just a brother trying to figure it all out. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. I don’t want to make anybody mad.

Menendez: You’ve learned which camera is your camera, Michael.

Sanders Townsend: Any given day, we each play a different role, I would argue. We did a panel discussion with Reverend [Al] Sharpton the other day, and we were toward the end, and Alicia was so funny. She said, “Since I’m the one whose job it is to usually get us to commercial break…” And we all cracked up because it’s true. Sometimes I done wrapped Michael up and he’s said what he’s said. Maybe I’m turnt up and I said what I said, and Alicia is like, “Thank you, and we will be right back.” And then we go on the other side and sometimes Alicia is very fired up about something, and it’s like, Clock it, Alicia, clock it. Let them know.

I love the three-person dynamic. For Alicia and I, we used to host our own shows. It’s different when you have your own show. It’s about you, what you think, the stories that you like, your context. When you have a show with one or two other people, it is a group conversation. I didn’t think I would love it. The PR people were like, Should we say this? But I really feel this way. I didn’t know if I would love a group situation. I literally love the group situation. On the days that Michael or Alicia aren’t there, I’m like, Where are my people? I wonder what Alicia would say about this. Or, I think if Mr. Chairman was here, he would say X, Y, and Z. That rapport is real.

Steele: For me, this is all new, you know. [Eye rolls from Menendez and Sanders Townsend]

Menendez: He’s going to be at his retirement party—

Sanders Townsend: He’s going to be like, “I’m still new here.”

Steele: I’m not a journalist. Symone is a comms person extraordinaire, and I have mad respect for Alicia’s skills at journalism. I can be a silly billy. And these two are like, Let’s reframe and reset and focus. That, for me, is a little bit of a learning curve, because, remember, I’m the guy who was always being asked the questions for the last 13 years of my time at MSNBC. In my 14th year, I’m the one asking those questions of others, and so that transition has been fun.

To Alicia’s point about the extemporaneous nature of it, that side of it is very fluid. It’s very real. But we’re mindful that we also need to get the important stuff in front of the audience—the background, the history, the storyline that they shouldn’t miss because of the politics or because of the craziness that’s coming out of the administration today, which can be the drama that’s distracting, as opposed to the underlying core thread that they’re stripping away your fundamental rights.

Sanders Townsend: I do think that the people are the best barometer on this. We’re going to ask the questions to the news makers and the people that are at our table to see what they think and try to tease this conversation out, but also, like, let’s take it a step further. People understand that—they appreciate that clarity and they appreciate the directness. They appreciate that Michael isn’t trying to contort himself into a box of what someone who hosts the show should be like. They want Michael Steele. People want Alicia Menendez. They want Symone Sanders Townsend, and that is what we are going to bring to 7 p.m. And frankly, that’s what Rebecca [Kutler] and [Senior Vice President Greg Kordick] want us to do. That’s why we have this opportunity.

Michael and Symone, you worked in politics pretty extensively. I’m curious what your response would be to people who might be wary of the politics-to-media pipeline. How do you maintain journalistic integrity given your experiences?

Sanders Townsend: We aren’t the first, to be very clear and we won’t be the last. And now apparently there’s a journalist-to-government pipeline. Hello, Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Our experience gives us insight. I’ve worked with reporters from every angle, [with] my colleagues now at MSNBC, previously when I was a commentator at CNN, but also throughout my life as a political operative. Sometimes when you haven’t done it, when you haven’t been in the room, when it’s not something that you’ve lived, there’s things that you don’t think to ask. And it’s not something anyone can tell you; it’s just that you’ve lived it. And the thing that Michael and I bring is that we have lived this. I think that experience that we bring, having been literally in the room, helps us, frankly, connect with not just the viewers better, but our guests.

We had the president of the Heritage Foundation on our show. We were the only show that got him on cable, Kevin Roberts, and that interview, I think, was a very important and illuminating interview that the three of us brought our various backgrounds to…to tease out the information that the viewers wanted to know. To get Kevin Roberts on the record of a number of things that the Heritage Foundation had said in prep, but no one had gotten them to stay on camera—those are the kind of interviews we want to do. We want to talk to the news makers. We want to talk to Republicans, because we want to understand what the hell is going on.

Menendez: If you’ve written talking points, if you’ve been on the talking points, then you know how to knock people off the talking points.

I’m wondering if any of you would be willing to speak to how and when discussions started about the move to weekdays. What kind of support has the network provided under the leadership of Rebecca Kutler during this transition?

Sanders Townsend: Look, we found out when everybody else found out. So just go ahead and clear that up right there. No secret pipelines around here.

That being said, I think it’s safe to say the network leadership has been extremely supportive of us. To be very clear, Rebecca made the decision to bring in all these different voices. We are expanding the weekend franchise. Jen [Psaki] is going to 9 p.m. The expansion of all these voices is wonderful, and it is responsive—not just to where, in my opinion, the moment is now, but where it is going. People want politics, but they want pop culture. They want to hear the news, but they also want someone to help them take it further, especially the MSNBC audience. They are a very engaged audience. The opportunity to move to prime, I mean, I was shocked and excited, but mostly shocked.

Do you all have a group chat with each other?

Menendez: Yes, several different group chats, and we’ve got side chats where Symone and I talk about outfits. Michael acts like he’s upset that he’s not in the conversation about the outfits.

Sanders Townsend: It’s like, you’re gonna have on a suit. Like, you’re gonna wear blue.

Menendez: Let me guess it’s blue.

Sanders Townsend: Blue, or maybe purple. It’s the purple tie.

We have multiple group chats. I will just note the group chat that has the three of us and our EP, Michael Steele is the lead photo, and we did, like, AI face-app enhancement on him. So it’s like a very young, Montel Williams–looking version of Michael Steele as our group photo. Very strong eyebrows.