MS NOW Charges Into 2026 With New Shows Posting Double-Digit Ratings Growth In Prime
The hosts of MS NOW’s ‘The Weeknight,’ Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele, and Symone Sanders Townsend.
MS NOW
Last year was all about change at MS NOW, starting with shedding the MSNBC name as the cable news network’s separation from NBC became official. That name change also involved a massive hiring operation to staff up the newly independent network, and a move from NBC’s home base at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to MS NOW’s new studios in Times Square.
2025 also featured big changes in the network’s prime time lineup–always a tricky move for any network, gambling on something new in a medium where familiarity often brings viewers back night after night. But just like the name change, MS NOW looks to have made the right bet in prime, with both of its new nightly shows, The Weeknight and The Briefing with Jen Psaki, posting double-digit ratings gains compared to the same month one year ago.
NEW YORK – DECEMBER 4: Jen Psaki on the CBS series The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, scheduled to air on the CBS Television Network. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)
CBS via Getty Images
The Briefing and The Weeknight drive prime time gains
In September, the network announced that Jen Psaki would move into the 8 p.m. ET hour on Monday nights, following an experiment that proved highly successful with the establishment of The Rachel Maddow Show as a Monday-nights-only fixture at 9 p.m.
In January, The Briefing was up 42 percent among total viewers, with an average total audience of 1.074 million viewers. Among viewers 25-54–the key demographic valued by advertisers–Psaki delivered 98,000 viewers in January, representing an increase from one year ago of 44 percent.
At The Weeknightthe Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders Townsend-hosted show drew an average total audience of 961,000 viewers–up 21 percent from one year ago–and 87,000 viewers in the key demo (up 19 percent from last January).
The growth in prime pushed MS NOW’s prime time average over one million total viewers in January, up 13 percent year-over-year, and outperforming rival network CNN. Fox News Channel remained the dominant force in cable news in January, as it notched its 24th consecutive year at number one.
One of MS NOW’s new studios at the network’s brand-new headquarters in Times Square.
Versant/MS NOW
New name? No problem for viewers
If executives at Versant, the new independent company that’s the parent to MS NOW, CNBC and other ex-NBC properties, were worried about potential ratings impact of dropping the MSNBC name–a legacy built over nearly 30 years–it didn’t show in January’s ratings.
Since launching as MS NOW in November, the network has grown across all dayparts, with total day ratings up 20 percent, along with gains in digital programming and the network’s presence on platforms like YouTube, where MS NOW dominates other news networks in total views.
Velshi & Ruhle say connection to viewers is paramount
Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle at Manhattan Center on Saturday, October 11, 2025 for MSNBC’s live event MSNBCLIVE — (Photo by: Ralph Bavaro/MSNBC)
Ralph Bavaro/MSNBC
In the leadup to the name change, then-MSNBC hosts Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle told me the network’s connection with viewers has always been a strength–and one that would not be impacted by a simple change of letters on the corner of the screen.
“I think MSNBC–or MS NOW–has always been a place of smart content,” Ruhle said, stressing that on her show, The 11th Houras on Velshithe two hosts don’t just read a teleprompter. “We are not TV presenters that are getting a script and covering different topics every day.”
As is becoming ever more common in the ever-more-diverse ecosystem of network news, Velshi and Ruhle launched a weekly show on YouTube in 2025adding that to their duties hosting their own shows on MS NOW.
“We’re talking to a general news audience who wants to be engaged and informed and how to get better and smarter,” Ruhle told me back in November. While some cable news networks fill hours with “around the table” conversations dominated by partisan debates–shouty panels of Democrats and Republicans talking over each other–that won’t be what you’ll see on their YouTube show or on MS NOW.
“Come in, just join us and tell us what you want,” Velshi said. Send us your questions. Take advantage of the fact that on YouTube and TikTok and people can send us questions. “I think if the viewer gets the message that they’re communicating with hosts on MSNBC or MS NOW, and that will work its way through to the way we cover things, I think that makes that makes us better for our viewers over the longer term.”
