‘Morning Joe’ Is Pre-empted for Breaking News Coverage

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A member of the show’s staff, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the producers and hosts had been told over the weekend that MSNBC’s programming would be taken over by its corporate sibling, NBC News, which has a stable of major anchors and hosts including Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie and Kristen Welker. Mr. Holt’s coverage ran on MSNBC immediately after the shooting on Saturday, and he was scheduled to interview Mr. Biden on Monday. The person said staff members were surprised on Monday when MSNBC ran programming from its digital news service, NBC News Now, instead of the main NBC News show, “Today,” which was not pre-empted. A spokesman for MSNBC denied that NBC had made the programming change because of political considerations. In a statement, the network said: “Given the gravity and complexity of this unfolding story, NBC News, NBC News NOW and MSNBC have remained in rolling breaking news coverage since Saturday evening. As we continue to cover this story into the week, the networks will continue to cross-simulcast, alternating between NBC News, NBC News Now and ‘MSNBC Reports,’ so there is one news feed covering this developing situation.” A spokesman for NBCUniversal News Group said “Morning Joe” would return Tuesday. MSNBC made other programming changes after the shooting on Saturday. The network scrapped “VelshiCast,” a planned YouTube livestream that was slated to feature commentary on the Republican convention in Milwaukee delivered by the anchor Ali Velshi, according to a person familiar with the decision.