MSNBC “The Cycle” co-host Krystal Ball gave birth to a baby boy this afternoon.

Lowell Maxwell was born at 1:15 PM, weighing 8 lbs 4 oz. We hear that mother and baby “are doing great.”

Ball called into “The Cycle,” where she explained that he is named after her uncle, who passed away prematurely.

Ball appeared on MSNBC’s “The last Word” Wednesday, where she revealed that she expected today to be her last day in the office, as she was due Monday. She went into labor yesterday, forcing her to miss the show. Ball announced her pregnancy on MSNBC in October.

“For me, psychologically, it was better to keep working until the last moment,” Ball said on the show, quipping that “I am a little disappointed that the show hasn’t totally fallen apart in the two days I haven’t been there.”

Ari Melber joins MSNBC’s 3pmET show “The Cycle” as a panelist.

Melber has been with MSNBC as a contributor since 2011. Melber joins S.E. Cupp, Krystal Ball and Touré on the program. He replaces Steve Kornacki, who is moving to weekends to anchor “Up.” Melber continues as a correspondent for “The Nation.”

More from MSNBC after the jump.

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MSNBC “The Cycle” co-host Krystal Ball had an announcement to make on the afternoon political chat show today: She’s having a baby, or as she described it, she’s “expecting a new little Politico next summer.” It will be Ball’s second child.

WATCH:

• CNN anchors Piers Morgan and Richard Quest discuss the Prince Harry nude photos burning up the web today. Morgan shares some experiences from his days as a tabloid editor to explain why the UK media may have been a bit slow to post them:

• MSNBC “The Cycle” co-host Krystal Ball is profiled by New York magazine. “Among her MSNBC peers, the one she names as a role model is the host of Politics Nation, Al Sharpton. “He is really an activist first, and his number one commitment is to the causes he cares about,” she explains. “I want to have that same commitment. Because my goal is not to be on TV — my goal is to have an impact.”

• On “CBS This Morning,” co-anchor Charlie Rose spoke to country music star Trace Adkins about lots of things, including “badonkadonks,” while wearing a cowboy hat.

WATCH:

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In its first two weeks on the air, MSNBC’s “The Cycle,” made up of an ensemble of hosts including Toure, S.E. Cupp, Steve Kornacki, and Krystal Ball, is holding its own down just -1% in Total Viewers compared to the same period last year when Martin Bashir‘s show aired at 3pm. But the show is down -36% where it counts, in the A25-54 demo.

In its first two weeks (which included the July 4 holiday last week) “The Cycle” is averaging 383,000 Total Viewers and 77,000 A25-54 viewers.

Compared to the previous month, “The Cycle” is down -16% in the demo and down -5% in Total Viewers.

But MSNBC is fully aware that it takes any new show time to build an audience. A year ago today, FNC’s “The Five” — which “The Cycle” resembles — debuted. In its first two weeks the show averaged 1.25 million total viewers and 261K in the demo. So far for July “The Five” is averaging 1.83 million Total Viewers and 405,000 A25-54 viewers.

MSNBC has finalized its plans for its new 3 PM show. It will be called “The Cycle,” and will be a panel ensemble show hosted by MSNBC contributors S.E. Cupp, Touré, Krystal Ball and Steve Kornacki. MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan announced the program at the end of his 4-5 PM show. Ratigan will be leaving MSNBC, with Martin Bashir moving to his timeslot, hence the opening at 3 PM.

If “The Cycle” sounds an awful lot like Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” that’s because it is a lot like “The Five,” except there will be four hosts instead of five. As it happens, when Ratigan was introducing the team, he referred to them as “The Four,” twice, and did not mention that the show was actually called “The Cycle.”

Of course, “The Five” is a knockoff of “The View,” which is in turn a knockoff of the many ensemble shows that came before it. What “The Five” did do though was prove than an ensemble show could work with a political focus on cable news, though one could also argue that the old “Crossfire” paved the way too.

The Huffington Post talked to EP Steve Friedman about the show.

“Cable television is programs about the news,” he said. “it’s no longer the news. Nobody turns on to find out what happens, because they already know from you guys. What people are interested in is listening and watching people give their take.”

At the end of the month MSNBC will have a hole to fill at 3 PM, following the departure of Dylan Ratigan and Martin Bashir‘s move to 4 PM. In its place, at least at the start, will be a show with a rotating panel of hosts, a source confirms to TVNewser. The show was described as temporary, as the network has not decided what to do in that hour on a full-time basis yet.

The news was first reported by Politico’s Dylan Byers, who also notes some of the names being floated to fill-in during that hour.

Steve Kornacki, Salon’s political writer, and S.E. Cupp, the conservative columnist, are among those who will co-host the new show, which will replace Martin Bashir’s program when it moves to the 4 p.m slot…At least two sources also named former congressional candidate-turned-commentator Krystal Ball and the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein as possible co-hosts.