MSNBC moves up premiere of Stephanie Ruhle’s ‘The 11th Hour’

By Matt Collins Article may include affiliate links

MSNBC is moving up Stephanie Ruhle’s debut as anchor of “The 11th Hour” by two days, likely due to the busy news cycle brought on by the  invasion of Ukraine.

Ruhle’s move was first announced in January 2022 and she’ll be taking over for Brian Williams, who exited NBCUniversal in late 2021 and thus vacating the 11 p.m. timeslot on MSNBC.

Originally, the March 2, 2022 date was selected as a debut date to avoid having the shot be pre-empted by “post game” coverage of the State of the Union scheduled for March 1, 2022.

However, with Russia invading Ukraine and the effects being felt worldwide, MSNBC apparently wanted to get Ruhle in place early.

There is widespread speculation about how the events in Ukraine will affect the SOTU. Typically the president and staff begin working on the speech weeks in advance.

“The 11th Hour” has retained its name, just sans “with Brian Williams” since Williams left, with guest hosts filling in. It will officially be renamed “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” when she debuts.

Ruhle left “Stephanie Ruhle Reports” at 9 a.m. eastern in order to move to evenings. That slot has been filed with a generic “MSNBC Reports” block since she left to prep for “11th,” also with rotating anchors. The network’s “Morning Joe” will then expand to four hours in that slot, though that isn’t planned until April 4, 2022.