MSNBC fires back at DEI disinformation: Two out gay Black men now host The Weekend

Spring is in full bloom in Washington, D.C., and the air hums with unease beneath the city’s famous cherry blossoms. President Donald Trump has returned to the White House, and the federal bureaucracy is being reshaped in real time. The administration is spinning, attacking the free press, and treating journalists like dissidents. The White House Correspondents’ Association has been elbowed aside, and the Trump White House has banned the Associated Press from pool reporting duty — a ban only recently slapped down by a federal judge.

Against this Orwellian backdrop, MSNBC is betting on something radical: the truth. And the media company is putting it in the hands of three people who know how to wield it.

Jonathan Capehart, 57, Eugene Daniels, 36, and Jackie Alemany, 36, are about to become the most talked-about trio in political television. On Saturday they take the reins of The Weekend, MSNBC’s flagship Saturday and Sunday morning show, broadcasting live from the network’s newly muscular Washington bureau. The show’s expansion to three hours is no accident. Neither is its lineup. The show will make history as the first time that two out gay Black men host a national television program.

“The mission of the show is the mission of journalism,” Capehart told The Advocate. “To tell the story, report the story without fear or favor.” He emphasized the importance of truth: “Our perspectives are grounded in our individual reporting but also in the facts.”

Alemany echoed that expectation, saying she hopes viewers will “learn something new” every weekend, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and fearlessness in journalism. “Sometimes it’s the ‘dumb question’ that gets the most revealing answer,” she said, recalling advice from her early mentor, CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer. Alemany explained that asking the question others might be too self-conscious to pose often leads to the most candid, insightful responses — a principle she believes will be central to the show’s success.

The Weekend 's new lineup debuts as MSNBC undergoes its most significant transformation in years. Under President Rebecca Kutler, the network is carving out a more independent identity as it finalizes a formal split from NBC Universal News Group into a stand-alone entity known internally as “SpinCo.” The network has expanded programs like The Weekend and launched new shows, including [break_free] The Weeknight With Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez, and The Briefing With Jen Psaki. Ratings are up — prime-time viewership has nearly doubled since the inauguration, and weekends have topped CNN for 16 straight months.

The momentum follows internal backlash over the cancellation of shows led by nonwhite hosts, including Joy Reid’s The Reid Out, Alex Wagner Tonight, and Katie Phang’s weekend slot. In February, Rachel Maddow, the network's most prominent anchor, called the shake-up “indefensible,” describing the layoffs as “a bloodbath” that blindsided staff. Wagner and Phang remain at MSNBC.

Now, a new team takes the studio set, and with it comes a ton of responsibility. Daniels stressed their shared approach. “The people who watch our show should be ready for any eventuality,” he said. “They should have been introduced to the people on the ground doing the work.” The goal is for viewers to wake up the morning after an election and not be surprised by the results. “I want people watching to say, ‘Well, Eugene and Jackie did say that could happen,’” he said.

But how do you cover an administration that demands attention and uses it like a weapon? “Covering this administration is an exercise in priorities,” Alemany said. “We zoom in on what we think is the most important and stay away from the shiny bright objects.”

“What is the left hand doing while the right hand is over here shaking something?” Daniels asked, describing how the team plans to look beyond the headline-grabbing moments to uncover the more in-depth, often overlooked impacts on people’s lives.

Daniels explained that the show will focus on what powerful actors are doing behind the scenes rather than chasing spectacle while public attention is distracted elsewhere. “It’s about making sure viewers understand not just what is loud and flashy but what will actually affect their groceries, their mortgages, their rights, their futures,” he said. “We want to pull back the curtain and show people the full picture, not just the shiny object everyone is pointing at.”

All three of the relaunched show’s anchors bring serious credentials. Capehart, who has hosted MSNBC’s The Saturday/Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart since 2020, is a Pulitzer Prize winner and associate editor at The Washington Post, where he also hosts the podcasts Capehart and First Look. He’s a political analyst on PBS NewsHour, regularly appearing on the “Brooks and Capehart” segment. Capehart, who won a GLAAD Media Award in 2022 for his MSNBC special Pride of the White House, and Daniels represent a kind of visibility the media advocacy group’s president and CEO called “essential.”

Daniels is MSNBC’s senior Washington correspondent. A former White House reporter for Politico, he has interviewed a range of political figures, including then–Vice President Kamala Harris.

Alemany, also a Pulitzer Prize winner, covered Congress and the White House for The Washington Post. There, she led coverage of Trump-era investigations and broke major stories on the January 6 insurrection and classified documents. She’s a Harvard graduate and former captain of the women’s basketball team, and she was honored as Outstanding Journalist in Print at the 2023 Washington Women in Journalism Awards.