Schultz out, Hayes in, free at last

In a smart scramble for younger demographics, MSNBC, I'm sure you know, has moved "The Ed Show" out and Chris Hayes in. The NY Times' Brian Stelter notes the latter's superiority in substance and style:

[Hayes'] conversations usually project a liberal worldview, in line with MSNBC as a whole. But Mr. Hayes and his producers also try to book guests who don’t often get on television, including conservatives; a recent discussion with Mr. Hayes and four conservatives lit up the blogosphere.

Many of MSNBC's regular evening viewers may experience brief fainting spells as Mr. Hayes attempts to introduce debate and actual controversy to the network's primetime programming. That's OK. Better to experience widespread vapors from Hayes' "Up" than suffer imminent brain death from one more season of "The Ed Show."

Schultz seems like a sweet guy, heart of gold, all that; but he's also a radio talker, not a serious cable-network host, never was. His bottomless outrage and sophomoric boosterism are almost always emotion- rather than intellect-based, which is Fox News territory, and indeed much better left to Fox News. 

Stelter labels Hayes "a protégé of Rachel Maddow," which is questionable. I recall first seeing Hayes as a guest of Keith Olbermann, pre-breakdown (his, not mine). At any rate it would seem that Maddow could now learn from the quasi-newcomer. I have on occasion heard Maddow bemoan conservatives' resolute unwillingness to have themselves booked on her show, but somehow, somehow Chris Hayes entices them, just as Chris Matthews regularly does. My guess: most critters of the political species will countenance just about anything for some network television airtime, except furtive smugness.

But, whatever. With the addition of Hayes to its weekday schedule, at least MSNBC is on a classier track.

Comments

[Laguna Bob]

His show is hands down the best on TV, in spite of his youth and some of the problems he's had. Let's hope that the new show preserves the current format. Although Hayes doesn't usually devote an entire hour to one topic, they are sometimes linked in a way that will be hard to do when the normal response of these types of shows is to offer up short snippets on the topics of the day. Chris hasn't said anything about this yet (that I've seen); perhaps he'll address this on his show this weekend.

[Lisa Lewis]

Hayes is a smug know-it-all twit who with all the crimes and offenses of the GOP spends an inordinate amount of time ripping the President. Ed was way too emotional and Rachel is the female version of Hayes while MHP is the black version of Rachel. Joy Reid, Martin Bashir and Lawrence O'Donnell are the only folk on that channel I can stomach on a semi-regular basis. Al Sharpton, who is not a particularly polished host,does at least focus on issues that don't even appear on the radar of the armchair activists who think intelligence is measured in syllable count.

[Peter G]

I'm not sure I wach the same show as Lisa. While I occasionally disagree quite strongly with Mr Hayes, his show has by far the most in depth discussion, the most nuanced and has the most diverse panels of guests. I seldom miss his show for those reasons.

[Robert Lipscomb]

Well, PM, you will enjoy Hayes much more, as will I. I will especially be relieved to no longer spending Saturday morning bouncing back and forth between "Up" and CSPAN2's "Book TV".

I have this queasy feeling that Chris will slide during primetime. As an engineer, I love charts, statistics and actual facts that prove assertions. As an engineer who has done a considerable amount of public speaking, I know how dangerous they can be.

I still look on the day I went cold-turkey on Power Point the way some alcoholics I know describe their "moment of clarity" on the way to AA.

So, I will be watching and hoping and praying he suceeds.

[JayJay]

The dig on Rachel is wrong. Gop chicken shits don't like to come on her show because they end up coming off bad, or true. Remember what she got Rand Paul to admit under simple questioning? Chris is smug little twit to me. But still better than Ed.