Schultz:<\/strong> “I raised my hand for this assignment for a number of personal and professional reasons. My fight on ‘The Ed Show’ has been for the workers and the middle class. This new time slot will give me the opportunity to produce and focus on stories that I care about and are important to American families and American workers.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n His statement implies that the move was his choice. However, there are some conflicting accounts of this and a report in the New York Times<\/a> last November speculated that Schultz’s time slot might be offered to MSNBC contributor and frequent fill-in host, Ezra Klein.<\/p>\n As it turns out, it will be Chris Hayes taking over Schultz’s time period. Hayes is editor-at-large for the highly respected Nation magazine and is currently a host of a weekend morning program on MSNBC, “UP with Chris Hayes.”<\/em> His selection affirms the appeal he has generated on his show and as a guest host for Rachel Maddow and others.<\/p>\n While the change for Schultz appears to be a demotion from primetime to the weekend ghetto, the details of the move may suggest some benefits. His new show will air on both Saturday and Sunday from 5:00 to 7:00pm. This means that his new show will be twice as long as the old one. You can do a lot more in a two hour format if you’re creative with segments, field production, and guests. And he will end up having nearly as much weekly time as he had before the move.<\/p>\n Last year I proposed some programming changes for MSNBC that would assist them in taking advantage of their post-election ratings surge. One of those was to give Schultz the Hardball repeat at 7:00pm and find another host to put up against O’Reilly and anchor the primetime block. Hayes was a possibility at the time, but not my choice. He is a smart and engaging host, but not the sort of personality that could compete with O’Reilly. If MSNBC is interested in taking the leap from contender to champ they need to take some risks.<\/p>\n One possibility would have been to develop a non-conventional format with a team of hosts. My suggestion was John Fugelsang and Joy Reid. They could produce a show that incorporated serious policy discussion along with a sense of humor and a nod to popular culture. That might have been an effective way to counter-program Fox and set up the evening’s later programs with something lighter and more broadly appealing. Perhaps MSNBC will consider such a program to replace Hayes on weekend mornings where they may be more comfortable experimenting.<\/p>\n As with everything in the television business, time will tell. MSNBC has been enjoying substantial gains lately, while Fox News has been suffering severe losses. Whether these trends will continue long enough for the networks to swap places in the standings remains to be seen. And CNN isn’t standing still either with their new boss, Jeff Zucker, whose influence is already being felt in significant ways. The end result is that 2013 is bound to be a year wherein the cable news business suffers the ancient Chinese curse of “living in interesting times.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On last night’s broadcast of the The Ed Show, Ed Schultz announced that he would be taking his program to a new weekend slot beginning in April. Thursday will be his last broadcast in primetime. His statement came at the end of the program and said in part… Schultz: “I raised my hand for this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[950,1055,33,22],"class_list":["post-9280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-chris-hayes","tag-ed-schultz","tag-fox-news","tag-msnbc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2pG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10399,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10399","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":0},"title":"MSNBC Puts Ed Schultz Back On Weekday Schedule","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/19\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In a surprisingly fast turnaround, MSNBC has shaken up their weekday programming to make room for Ed Schultz who was bumped to weekends just six months ago. MSNBC president Phil Griffin wrote this in a memo to his staff: \"This move will help us enhance the flow of our weeknight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4978,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4978","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":1},"title":"Is MSNBC Serious About Competing With Fox News?","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/22\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"When Keith Olbermann abruptly departed from MSNBC the network's schedule was thrust into chaos. Lawrence O'Donnell was moved up two hours. Ed Schultz went from early evening to 10:00pm. Schultz's old slot was a menagerie that eventually settled on Cenk Uygur for nearly six months. All of this turmoil occurred\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8405,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8405","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":2},"title":"MSNBC: #1 Cable News Network In Primetime For Two Days Post-Election","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/9\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The reelection of President Barack Obama was certainly a gratifying victory for Democrats and supporters of a moderate path forward for America. However, it also seems to have been a victory for the left-of-center cable news network, MSNBC. Fox News has been dominating the cable news ratings for about a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8478,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8478","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":3},"title":"MSNBC’s Primetime Trounces Fox News Since Election Day: Maddow And O’Donnell Soar","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/19\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox News is continuing to show weakness in its primetime schedule in the wake of President Obama's reelection. In the eight days since election day MSNBC's average audience for the key 25-54 year old demographic drew about 8% more viewers than Fox. [Source: TVNewser, weekday Nielsen ratings from 11\/7-11\/16] Particularly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3725,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3725","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":4},"title":"Keith Olbermann To Launch Internet Venture?","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/22\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Not 24 hours has elapsed since Keith Olbermann shocked the cable news world by announcing that Countdown has reached ignition and been lifted off the MSNBC schedule. And due to the vague explanations offered by the principals, the public is left to their imagination as to what happened. Today The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9416,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9416","url_meta":{"origin":9280,"position":5},"title":"Cable News Viewers Are Getting Smarter – Dumping Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/3\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In the first quarter of 2013 the trends for cable news viewership are affirming past performance. And once again, Fox News is losing viewers at a faster rate than its competitors. While remaining on top overall, Fox lost nearly 20% of its total audience as compared to the same period\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9283,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions\/9283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cable](\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/Pix\/Charts\/cable-jan13.jpg\")
Schultz’s ratings were growing at a steady pace<\/a>, although he was no match for Fox’s number one program, The O’Reilly Factor. At the end of last year he posted a 54% gain compared to O’Reilly’s 22% decline. Then again in January he scored a plus 23% to O’Reilly’s minus 25%, as Fox sunk to a twelve year low<\/a>.<\/p>\n