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Rita Cosby signed off her final "Live & Direct" last Thursday, and the changes at MSNBC will keep on coming: ETP has learned that "The Situation With Tucker Carlson" will be undergoing a major overhaul, starting with its name. The show will now be called simply "Tucker" after its host and will focus more on Carlson's personality — which means less use of outside commentators like "Situation" regulars Rachel Maddow and Max Kellerman (both are still expected to contribute to the show at times, but the focus will be on Carlson). The segment featuring Carlson and senior producer Willie Geist will remain.
The bigger news for the media beat, and in particular for this site, is the news that the new "Tucker" will have a media-watching segment which, according to our MSNBC source, is expected to be called "Beat The Press." (Well, we ripped it off Russert so who are we to quibble? Welcome to the club, Tucker!) In the segment, Tucker will critique his cohorts in print and on TV and see how their coverage measures up. 24-hour news cycle, people. It needs a lot of eyes.
The changes taking Tucker to "Tucker" follow the sweeping changes at the network announced last month by new GM Dan Abrams and NBC News SVP Phil Griffin. Carlson's show, which was moved from its current 11pm timeslot to the 4pm/6pm berth vacated by Abrams' own now-defunct "The Abrams Report," will be going up against CNN's "The Situation Room" which airs from 4-6 p.m. and 7-8 p.m. Monday to Friday on CNN. That might be one reason for the name change.
