NewsNation expands ‘Morning in America,’ adds co-anchor

By Michael P. Hill Article may include affiliate links

NewsNation’s Dallas correspondent has been named co-anchor of the network’s morning newscast, which is also expanding to fill a gap left after it canceled “Early Morning.”

Markie Martin will co-anchor “Morning in America” alongside Adrienne Bankart starting June 12, 2023.

“Morning” will also expand to four hours, starting an hour earlier, at 6 a.m. eastern. It will replace “Early Morning,” which previously aired from 6 to 7 a.m.

NewsNation canceled “Early Morning” May 19, 2023, and let anchor Mitch Carr go after less than a year on the air.

However, the expansion of “Morning in America” is not surprising given that the network previously announced it would be offering news programming 24 hours a day, five days a week, though its overnight hours are filled with repeats of primetime programming, similar to most cable news networks. To maintain that commitment, NewsNation would have needed to either continue producing original news in the timeslot or add a repeat airing of an earlier broadcast.

With this change, NewsNation is swapping out one hour of morning news for another, so there is no net effect on news output.

The network apparently opted, however, to move forward without Carr on the morning news schedule. Carr had been appearing on “Morning in America” as well as “Early Morning,” so it would have been simple to essentially merge the two broadcasts.

Carr did not mention why he was let go, but did indicate he was available for a new job in TV news.

Martin, meanwhile, will move from Dallas to Chicago to co-anchor in-studio alongside Bankart in the network’s primary studio located inside of WGN.

Martin was previously a morning co-anchor at KOCO in Oklahoma City before joining NewsNation.