Antonia Hylton launches ‘The Assignment’ Sept. 12 on MS NOW, where she follows friend and colleague Jacob Soboroff’s ‘Connect’
MS NOW
Antonia Hylton has achieved a lot in journalism–reporting for NBC News, anchoring newscasts at MS NOW, creating an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning podcast, and writing a New York Times bestseller–but she’s never launched her own show. Until now. The Assignment with Antonia Hylton debuts Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on MS NOW, and that means this week she’s working long hours reporting for the show and preparing for the surreal experience of hosting a show with her name on it.
“I am incredibly excited,” she told me. “I am so grateful for the opportunity and the platform. I’m also overwhelmed, and I have so many ideas. And I’m trying to remind myself I have three hours a day now, so I’m gonna get through them all. But I should probably take a deep breath. So I think I’m sort of feeling all the things at the moment. But mostly, I just I am really excited about what the weekends are about to become on MS NOW.”
Antonia Hylton anchoring at MS NOW alongside Soledad O’Brien
MS NOW
‘We’re both outdoor cats’
Hylton’s 1 p.m. show follows Connect with Jacob Soboroff, which launched weekend mornings at 10 a.m. ET earlier this summer, linking two friends and journalists who never set out to be “anchors,” and, if pressed, will say they feel most comfortable in the field talking to real people impacted by stories across the country.
“I think the weekends now there’s just going to be this sort of shared identity and DNA,” Hylton said. “We’re both outdoor cats who still love being with people…who are going to want to do that original and enterprise reporting and want to bring people on our programs who are those kinds of people who go out and really get the story.”
“I don’t think either of us went to the Ron Burgundy School of Television Journalism,” Soboroff told me. “I think that it’s already working on the weekends, and to be able to go back-to-back…I even made a special request of both the leadership and Antonia that we do a live handoff between the two of us because it gives us the opportunity to talk to each other every weekend, every show.”
“The sheer fact that Rebecca [Kutler, MS NOW’s president] picked both of us to do this back to back…feels very meant to be,” Soboroff added. “We are so much alike in so many ways in our sensibilities and our affinity for regular human beings and being out in the world and telling stories.”
MS NOW art for ‘The Assignment with Antonia Hylton,’ debuting Saturday at 1 p.m. ET
MS NOW
‘A coast-to-coast block by two standout journalists’
In choosing first Soboroff and now Hylton, MS NOW is doubling down on its brand identity as a cable news network making a significant investment in enterprise reporting rather than the shouty political panels that dominate much of cable news.
“The Assignment with Antonia Hylton will be a weekend destination for the latest political and cultural headlines, with thoughtful conversations and fresh perspectives from leading lawmakers, newsmakers and changemakers,” said MS NOW senior vice president Greg Kordick in a memo to staff announcing the new weekend lineup. “At the heart of the program will be what Antonia does best: bringing curiosity, accountability and a people-first approach to the stories impacting communities across the country. Each weekend, she’ll help audiences go beyond the headlines, better understand why these stories matter and create space for meaningful dialogue around them.”
Kordick pointed to Hylton’s recent MS NOW series, Cities Under Siege, where she reported on the often aggressive tactics of federal immigration officers and the immigrant communities and families that feel overwhelmed by the presence of ICE.
“We look forward to seeing Antonia bring that extensive field reporting experience and perspective to the anchor chair as she joins our strong weekend lineup,” Kordick said. “The Assignment will air back-to-back with Jacob Soboroff’s Connect, creating a coast-to-coast block led by two standout journalists who share a commitment to bringing audiences closer to the people at the center of the nation’s biggest stories.”
One of MS NOW’s new studios at the network’s brand-new headquarters in Times Square.
Versant/MS NOW
‘We do not have passive viewers’
The Soboroff and Hylton back-to-back block is part of a huge expansion of new talent and programming at MS NOW, which formally separated from NBC (and its old name, MSNBC) last year. Since then, the network has built a news organization from the ground up, including new studios and a roster of journalists, producers and editors.
Recent launches include Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle, The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi, and On the Line with Alicia Menendez. In July, the network’s new programs performed well, delivering year-over-year gains and pushing MS NOW to become the second-highest-rated network in all of cable TV. July also ranked as MS NOW’s eighth consecutive month of year-over-year growth.
While it’s anecdotal, many of the network’s anchors and hosts believe the deep connections formed with viewers–first at MSNBC and now at MS NOW–have made the split from NBC a smooth one, and set the foundation for further ratings growth.
“We do not have passive viewers,” Hylton told me. “Every time I get off set, I have emails that are like, ‘Here’s my thoughts on this segment. I wish you would ask this question. I don’t know if I like your hair today.’… One time, I straightened my hair, and I got like a dozen emails… ‘We like your curls.’”
Soboroff says he went so far as to set up a dedicated inbox just to manage the volume of viewer mail. “This is a place where people really care about each other and are really friends,” he said of MS NOW. “Everybody has their own place here and their own voice, and it feels unique… it’s about, for me, the people, not about the politics or any of the rest of it. And that’s why I think the audience is as engaged, if not more engaged, at MS NOW than any other place I’ve ever worked.”
The Assignment with Antonia Hylton debuts Saturday, Sept. 12 at 1 p.m. ET on MS NOW, immediately following Connect with Jacob Soboroff. Joy Fowlin is the executive producer of The Assignment.
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