Joe Scarborough Shares the Changes He Wants at ‘Morning Joe’ & MSNBC Amid Shake-Up

Joe Scarborough is ready for even more changes to come into play at MSNBC. Following Rashida Jones’ exit from the network earlier this month, Scarborough said he sees things heading in a different direction.

For one, he’s ready to start expanding the scope of his Morning Joe interviews to cultural icons, rather than just political figures. “We had done a lot of that in the past,” he pointed out to The Hollywood Reporter. “In the pre-[Donald] Trump days, I’d say pre-2015, it would be very normal for us to have Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Bradley Cooper, Pete Townsend, all of these pop culture figures on the show. And then when Donald Trump was running and got elected, he consumed most of the bandwidth of not only the show but also news in general.”

Scarborough said he’s been trying to return to the show’s “original concept” of mixing politics, foreign policy, and the economy, with music, film, and Broadway for “years.” He added, “We’ve wanted to do it. And in 2022, everything was just so hot. I knew that if I wanted to actually interview artists and actors and directors, people that I’ve always loved, whether it’s Christopher Nolan or Al Pacino, that I needed to create a different space for it. So we originally created a primetime show where we would do it [Joe Scarborough Presents], and we would interview these people and pop culture figures and influential artists. But then after a while, I said, ‘Wait, this stuff is so good. I don’t want to have Christopher Nolan on at eight o’clock at night. I want my Morning Joe family to be able to hear Christopher Nolan and Robert Downey, Jr., and all the Oppenheimer people.’ I wanted that in the morning. So we moved it back to the morning, and we’ve just focused on it a lot more.”

It also helps that the more culture-driven interviews have performed well on the network’s YouTube page. “It’s great. One of the things that I had been worried about, that Mika [Brzezinski] and I always went back and forth on, was the fear that we were just preaching to the choir. Whether you’re talking about YouTube, whether you’re talking about the newsletter, whether you’re talking about writing in other formats, whether you’re talking about these town hall meetings, all of them open up the audience and help you reach new people and get new insights,” Scarborough explained.

Related

‘Morning Joe’ & MSNBC Make Changes After Joe Scarborough Meltdown

If he gets his wish for the network to pivot in this direction, Scarborough has one dream guest: Paul McCartney. “That’s the only person,” he admitted. “Here I am, 18 years later, still reaching for the brass ring. One of these days, one of these days, one fine day.”

Morning Joe, Weekdays, 6a/7c, MSNBC

From TV Guide Magazine

What to Expect From 'The Hunting Party's Love Triangle and Mystery

Manifest alum Melissa Roxburgh and the showrunner of NBC’s Hunting Party tease TV Guide Magazine about what’s ahead for the “government conspiracy that just keeps unfolding” — plus, the series’ “good” love triangle. Read the story now on TV Insider.