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On Thursday’s telecast of his MSNBC program, The Ed Show, host Ed Schultz shocked his viewing audience by stating that the program would be moving to the 5-7pm block on weekends starting in April. Chris Hayes, host of the weekend morning show Up With Chris Hayes, will take over Schultz’s slot and his 8-10am slot remains open.
Still while Schultz is remaining with the network, his presence on the weekday lineup will be gone. Count me amongst those who are thrilled to see Chris Hayes in primetime but the Ed Show has a bit more of a sentimental place in my viewing lineup. I get back from dinner at around 7:45pm and when I would go to my dorm, the first thing I’d put on is MSNBC just in time for the show to begin.
I frequently type a mile a minute to get in a witty retort to see if I can get my tweet featured on television, a format that only the Ed Show really pushes. The interactivity of the program is by far its greatest strength and I do hope that it remains when it comes to weekend programming.
But while I did not always agree with Schultz’s opinions nor his presentation style, I appreciated his content. While Rachel Maddow is the number one source for foreign policy issues and Lawrence O’Donnell is the best editorialist on the channel; Schultz’s bread and butter was the working class and labor issues.
Schultz is not a journalist in the vein of Maddow, Hayes, O’Donnell or Martin Bashir but his coverage of the Wisconsin union debacle and the subsequent attempted recall of Governor Scott Walker was terrific and worthy of substantial praise. His recent revelation of Scott Prouty being the source of the infamous “47%” video is also an impressive landmark for The Ed Show.
MSNBC is my ideal channel and it’s great to know that the weekend lineup will get a primetime shot in the arm with The Ed Show as well as Hayes getting his own programming. I appreciate the “wonky” shows more as I’ve progressed through college and it’s exciting to see a new program debut.
But let’s give Mr. Schultz credit where credit was due because he definitely deserves it.
