Jonathan Capehart and Eugene Daniels are breaking barriers at MSNBC after being tapped as the network’s first openly gay Black men to co-host alongside Jacqueline Alemany for its newest cable news program. Overall, they will be the first openly gay Black men to co-host a cable news program together on a major news network.
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Capehart and Daniels are the newest co-hosts for The Weekend
GLAAD reported that Capehart and Daniels will start their new roles on the expanded weekend program The Weekend, which will air in late April. The show will be live from Washington, D.C., from 7 to 10 a.m. ET on Saturdays and Sundays, with both seasoned journalists offering their political analysis on the latest news coming out of the U.S. capital.
In early March, Daniels shared the exciting news in an Instagram post while touting his new position as senior Washington correspondent for MSNBC’s news gathering team. He also acknowledged Symone Sanders, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, the former co-hosts of the show.
“Some really exciting news: Very soon, I’ll be joining MSNBC as a co-host of “The Weekend” and also join their new newsgathering team as Senior Washington Correspondent,” Daniels wrote in a March 3 post.
He continued, “I’m excited and nervous and all the feelings but most importantly honored that I get to pick up the helm from the fabulous @symonedsanders, @chairman_steele and @aliciamenendezxo.”
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‘We are official!’
Capehart also shared the news on Instagram, posting a photo of himself and his new co-hosts, Daniels and Alemany.
“We are official! Can’t wait to get started on @theweekendmsnbc this spring,” he wrote in the post’s caption.
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Capehart has had a long career in journalism. In 1999, he earned a Pulitzer Prize as part of the New York Daily News team for covering the financial mismanagement of Harlem’s Apollo Theater, according to Carleton College, where he graduated in 1989.
He is also an associate editor at The Washington Post and a contributor to PBS’s NewsHour. According to GLAAD, Capehart’s anticipated memoir, Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man’s Search for Home, will be published later this year.
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MSNBC’s aims to boost viewership as an independent network
Danels joined MSNBC in 2021 and has since served the public as one of Washington’s most trusted political analysts and guest hosts. He also served as chief playbook and White House correspondent at Politico, GLAAD reported.
MSNBC‘s transition comes after it decided to operate as an independent news network, cutting ties with parent company NBCUniversal. The network aims to boost viewership following a decline compared to the previous year.
According to Adweek, MSNBC saw a 16% decline in total primetime viewership and a 9% drop in the key demographic. For total day viewership, the network was down 25% overall and 21% in the demo compared to 2024.
