MSNBC is reportedly considering moving Chuck Todd to a morning time slot and bringing former longtime Fox News host Shepard Smith on board for a prime-time slot.
According to a report from the Daily Beast, several sources at NBC claimed the company is looking to acquire Smith, who left Fox News in October. The sources noted that the network would like to move Chuck Todd’s MTP Daily to a morning time slot and fill the 5 p.m. EST hour with an anchor who can drive higher ratings before the 2020 election is in full swing.
The report claimed Smith met with MSNBC President Phil Griffin to discuss potential roles within the network after his noncompete agreement with Fox News expires, though no final decisions have been made. An NBC source also claimed that CNN is looking to hire Smith but that his contract could be a very expensive acquisition.
Smith would take a prime-time slot if he joined the network, which would be new for the anchor, who held down the 3 p.m. EST time slot at Fox News. Todd would be bumped to a 9 a.m. slot, where viewership is already down for the network. If this took place, Todd would be doing just the opposite of Fox News’s Bill Hemmer, who is set to replace Smith after hosting America’s Newsroom in Fox News’s 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST slot.
The sources claimed that Todd had been fighting the move internally because he wants to maintain his show and because his staff does not want to move from the evening work shifts to an early morning show.
