On Monday, MSNBC announced that on weekdays, the 5 p.m. ET broadcast of “Hardball” hosted by Chris Matthews will be replaced with “The ED Show,” hosted by Ed Schultz.
“Chris Matthews and the ‘Hardball’ team have been pulling double duty for years,” MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement. “This move will concentrate the ‘Hardball’ audience to one key time period and enhance the flow of our evening programming. Ed Schultz is a force of nature and an important voice to the MSNBC audience. I can’t wait to have him back on weeknights.”
“The ED Show” has held numerous time slots in its four-year history at MSNBC. It debuted at 6 p.m. in April 2009. In January 2011, with the departure of Keith Olbermann from the network, “The ED Show” was moved to 10 p.m. In October 2011, “The ED Show” swapped time slots with Lawrence O’Donnell’s program, “The Last Word” and aired at 8 p.m. ET.
Last May, however, “The ED Show” was moved to weekends and Schultz’s 8 p.m. time slot was given to Chris Hayes for his “All In” program.
“Hardball,” the release reads, “will continue at 7 p.m. ET.”
Schultz will have some tough competition at 5 p.m. ET, going up against Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” which has been dominating MSNBC’s “Hardball” and CNN’s “The Situation Room” since its premiere in July 2011.