MSNBC becomes MS NOW, loses peacock logo before Comcast spinoff
Cable news channel MSNBC will be rebranded as My Source for News, Opinion and the World, or MS NOW, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday.
Simone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels are close friends, MS NOW anchors, and current co-hosts of a new podcast called Clock It, which aims to blend politics and pop culture.
The audio series, which debuts on February 12, is a perfect fit for the Washington, D.C. stars, both 36 years old.
Daniels was one of the first openly gay hosts to host a cable news show and rose to fame in a capital known for his drab clothing, becoming a D.C. fashion icon.
Sanders Townsend, a self-described “bald man” and “eyelash and nail enthusiast,” is instantly recognizable to some Americans for his style, social media presence, and past surrogacy for Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.
The Beyoncé superfan’s much-talked-about venture comes as MS NOW’s parent company, Versant, and other cable companies seek to reach new audiences in a rapidly changing TV news landscape, three months after its split from NBCUniversal.
A day after rap superstar Nicki Minaj appeared on stage with President Donald Trump, Sanders Townsend said on January 29 that pop culture and politics “have always been closely intertwined, and I feel like with this president and this particular environment that we’re in, it’s become even more so.”
“He never backed down.”
Now, Daniels’ relationship with best friends Sanders Townsend faced a rocky start. The two, both young in terms of their career trajectories, first met at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Sanders Townsend worked as the state press secretary for the progressive U.S. senator from Vermont who shares his last name, and Daniels was a political reporter for Newsy.
Spokespeople like Sanders Townsend are often confrontational and focused on changing the candidate’s perspective to reporters like Daniels, but a healthy working relationship can make things go more smoothly for both parties. “The reporters had a job to do, and I had a job to do, and Eugene, you know, was one of those guys who never backed down. And I always thought highly of him,” Sanders-Townsend recalled.
Sanders Townsend later joined Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. By then, Daniels had become a reporter for Politico. After Biden was elected president, Sanders Townsend was hired as chief press secretary and senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Daniels covered Ms. Harris when she was vice president and was named author of “The Playbook,” a must-read for Washington insiders, chronicling the news inside the Beltway at the time.
A year after serving as Harris’ senior staffer, Sanders-Townsend left government to join MSNBC, now known as MS NOW, where she hosted “Simone.” She then co-anchored The Weeknd with longtime anchor Alicia Menendez and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
Last year, when the trio took weekends off for “The Weeknight,” which airs daily Monday through Friday, Daniels left Politico to replace Sanders Townsend in charge of “The Weekend.” He co-hosts the Saturday/Sunday show with Washington Post alums Jonathan Capehart and Jackie Alemany.
Daniels called the ability to “be yourself” during mutual upward mobility in the network “amazing.”
“We never expected to see two people who look, sound and act like us doing what we do on MS NOW,” Daniels told USA TODAY.
President Trump has ‘followed culture all his life’
“Real Housewives” aficionado Saunders Townsend and Oprah fan Daniels combine the topics of the day, including what’s happening on Capitol Hill, with the latest in Hollywood and beyond.
“People often forget that there was a time when Donald Trump was the most mentioned name in rap music,” Sanders-Townsend said, adding, “The fact that they were mentioned in rap music was a positive thing, and he followed that culture his whole life.”
At “Clock It”, tea is served first (with a side of shade). While filming the pilot episode with Daniels last month, Sanders-Townsend explained that they started with the recent Golden Globe Awards rather than difficult news. “I was waiting for Michael B. Jordan to win because he played two twins and three vampires,” Sanders Townsend said of Michael B. Jordan’s Oscar-winning performance in Ryan Coogler’s film “Sinners.”
The two will also discuss the highly anticipated Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring Bad Bunny, who recently won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Daniels, a former D1 college football player at Colorado State University, praised MS NOW executives Rebecca Cutler and Madeline Hellinger for letting them be authentic on the air and in their new podcast project.
“They understand that on the one hand they have a certain obsession with culture and hair or no hair, but on the other hand they’re great people and they care about their skin care, but on the other hand they’re also very serious people who care deeply about the fate of this country,” Daniels said.
“I think you can be all of those things,” Daniels said.
clock that.
