MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews anchor the network’s election night coverage beginning at 6pmET Tuesday, along with Rev. Al Sharpton, Lawrence O’Donnell, Ed Schultz, and Steve Schmidt from New York City. Chuck Todd focuses on the battleground states and Tamron Hall provides exit poll results. Melissa Harris-Perry will contribute from Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago and Chris Jansing will report from Romney headquarters in Boston.

MSNBC’s coverage begins way too early on Tuesday morning, with “Way Too Early” at 5:30amET, then “Morning Joe” and the rest of the dayside schedule devoted to the election until a special “Hardball” at 5pmET.

Much more after the jump…

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MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry is the subject of this week’s “So What Do You Do?” column. In addition to noting her media idols (Bill Moyers, Gwen Ifill, Rachel Maddow) and her guilty TV pleasures (“House Hunters,” “Parks and Recreation”), Harris-Perry told us about how the show is produced, and whether ratings play a role.

Having a show with your name on it makes you a brand. Who decides the direction of the show, and how do you balance the network’s desire for ratings with your own vision?
I have never once had someone from this network come to me and have a conversation about ratings, good or bad. No one. Maybe they’re talking to my executive producer, and that’s completely possible. But none of them have ever walked in here and said, “You know what? You cannot do that because of the ratings” or “Please do that more because of the ratings.” I will say that I have been completely clear, to the point of being fanatical, that my staff is not to share with me ratings information. I don’t ever want to know because, for me, the point of doing this show is not about the ratings. But I can tell when it’s not been a good weekend just by looking at the staff the next week. It’s kind of like after President Obama had that bad showing in the debates, like you just know that nobody was walking around happy in [Obama campaign quarters] OFA 2012. So, I can kind of tell if I had a week that wasn’t great because people are kind of down but, if I had a week that’s great, people are in there bouncing around.

Read the entire interview, here.

An Egyptian-born activist who has appeared recently on CNN and MSNBC spent a night a New York City jail for spray-painting a subway ad that calls the enemies of Israel “savages.”

Mona Eltahawy, and four others, are charged with criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of a graffiti instrument. Just two weeks ago, Eltahawy, a U.S. citizen, was in Cairo protesting in Tahrir Square. On Sept. 13 she was a guest on CNN and two days later appeared on Melissa Harris-Perry‘s weekend show. The New York Post videotaped the incident in Times Square Tuesday.

CNN reported on the incident Tuesday morning and Fox News’s “Red Eye” discussed it early this morning. PRNewser reported last week that the ads were created by the American Freedom Defense Initiative and would be appearing in 10 subway stations around New York City.

A New Orleans home recently purchased by MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry has been destroyed by Hurricane Isaac.

Harris-Perry tweeted a picture of the house, which is almost completely destroyed save for the front facade. The house was originally devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and Harris-Perry and her husband were hoping to fix it up and make it livable again.

Feeling sad. #Isaac took the home @jameshperry and I just bought.All safe. House was vacant except for my dreams. twitter.com/MHarrisPerry/s…

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) August 29, 2012

Harris-Perry is a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans during the week, commuting to New York on the weekend for her MSNBC program. Her efforts to restore the home were featured on MSNBC just three days earlier.

WATCH:

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NPR’s “All Things Considered” profiles MSNBC host and Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry. David Folkenflik talks to Perry and a number of her colleagues, including MSNBC president Phil Griffin:

“I think the passionate host is winning because there are so many different outlets today — that to break through the clutter you can’t be cold and arm’s length,” Griffin says. “You’ve got to love what you’re talking about. You’ve got to make it exciting and interesting.

Harris-Perry leavens her strong left-liberal impulses with a discursive, civil style — yet Griffin says her strong voice emerges loud and clear.

“In a 140-character Twitter world, the rebound is depth. People yearn for depth,” Griffin says, “and Melissa — you know — is an academic. That’s what they do.”

MSNBC continued its run as the #2 cable news network for Q2 2012 but is also experiencing declines, double digit in most cases. In Primetime, MSNBC is down -13% in Total Viewers and -17% in younger viewers. In Total Day viewership is down -10% in Total Viewers and -17% in younger viewers.

The ratings for Q2 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 689,000 Total Viewers / 217,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 394,000 Total Viewers / 129,000 A25-54

All of MSNBC’s primetime shows topped CNN’s primetime shows for the quarter: Ed Schultz over Anderson Cooper at 8pm by +84% in Total Viewers and +45% in A25-54 viewers; Rachel Maddow over Piers Morgan at 9pm +88% / +99%; and Lawrence O’Donnell over Cooper at 10pm, +77% / +54%.

Still, most of MSNBC’s signature shows are down double digits in younger viewers: “The Ed Show” is down -26%; “The Rachel Maddow Show” is down -18%, and “Last Word” is down -20% as is “Morning Joe,” though “Joe” is still a solid #2 in the time period behind “Fox & Friends” (which is down -11% in younger viewers).

MSNBC’s opinion shows have given a lift to weekend mornings. “Up with Chris Hayes” tops CNN in younger viewers from 8-10amET on Saturday and Sunday. While “Melissa Harris-Perry” has grown viewership in the 10–Noon time period +9% and +20% on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

More details in the MSNBC release after the jump…

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We’ve already told you about how on his show last night Neil Cavuto took on MSNBC over some of its coverage of Ann Romney‘s multiple sclerosis treatment. Well later on in FNC’s primetime, two other shows called out other peacock programs.

On “Special Report,” Bret Baier took on “‘NBC Nightly News” saying the show “is playing some serious catch-up” on the “Fast and Furious.”

“The network news show has only mentioned the failed gun tracking program, once for a few seconds since the scandal broke last year,” Baier said. “Keep in mind, Attorney General Holder has testified before Congress no less than nine times.”

Later, on “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill O’Reilly interviewed Fox News contributor Lanny Davis about his crusade to restore civility to politics and the media.

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MSNBC continued its run as the #2 cable news network in May, second to Fox News in both Total Day and primetime. Like the other cable news networks MSNBC experienced declines in May — down double digits across the board.

The ratings for May, 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 674,000 Total Viewers / 216,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 385,000 Total Viewers / 124,000 A25-54

In Total Day, MSNBC was down -19% in Total Viewers and down -26% in the A25-54 demo compared to May 2011. Ratings were similarly low in primetime, with the network seeing losses of -19% in Total Viewers and -21% in younger viewers.

One bright spot for MSNBC was its weekend opinion shows “Up with Chris Hayes” and “Melissa Harris-Perry,” both of which have premiered in the past year. On Saturdays in May, “Up” grew +13% in Total Viewers and “Melissa Harris-Perry” grew +8% in Total Viewers compared to May 2011. On Sundays, “Up” was up +15% and “Melissa Harris Perry” was up +9% in Total Viewers.

Read MSNBC’s release after the jump.

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‘Tis commencement season, and so without further ado, we present TVNewser’s fifth annual list of who’s-speaking-where-and-when at America’s colleges and universities (in alphabetical order):

ABC/CNN’s Christiane Amanpour: University of Southern California - Annenberg School of Journalism,  May 11

NBC’s Tom Brokaw: Arizona State University , May 3…Vanderbilt University (TN) – Senior Class Day, May 10

FNC’s SVP of News Editorial Michael Clemente: Warren County Community College (NJ), May 19

ABC’s Katie Couric:  University of Virginia, May 20

NBC’s Tom Costello: University of Colorado, Journalism & Mass Communication, May 10.

NBC’s David Gregory: Emerson College (MA), May 14

CNN/CBS’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta: University of Michigan, previously on April 28

NBC’s Savannah Guthrie: Hobart and William Smith Colleges (NY), May 13

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry: Wellesley College (MA), May 25

PBS’s Maria Hinojosa: Simmons College (MA) – Morning Commencement, May 18

NBC’s Lester Holt: Pepperdine University (CA), previously on April 28

PBS’s Gwen Ifill: Holy Names University (CA), May 12… Bates College (ME), May 26

More after the jump, including Koppel, Lehrer, Sawyer, Schieffer, and three Williamses (Brian, Juan, and Pete)

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MSNBC was the #2 cable news network for the month of April, delivering a clear win over CNN in both Total Day and Primetime. Compared to April 2011, however, the network is down -5% in Total Viewers and -9% in A25-54 viewers in primetime. In Total Day, MSNBC is flat in Total Viewers and -5% in the demographic.

The ratings for April, 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 754,000 Total Viewers / 236,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 425,000 Total Viewers / 139,000 A25-54

“Morning Joe” continues to grow in younger viewers, posting a +13% increase in the A25-54 demographic compared to last year.

In primetime, “Hardball with Chris Matthews” is up in Total Viewers compared to last year at both 5 and 7pmET. Al Sharpton‘s “PoliticsNation” is also up +21% in Total Viewers. At 1opmET, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” is up +7% in Total Viewers and +4% in A25-54 viewers.

MSNBC’s weekend morning programming — anchored by Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris-Perry and Alex Witt — was another bright spot for the network. All three programs are up in Total Viewers compared to the same hours in April 2011 — Hayes’ program is up +14%, Harris-Perry’s program is up +7%, and Witt’s program is up +10%. Year-over-year growth was even stronger on Sundays, when the three programs were up +30%, +23%, and +14%, respectively.

The full release from MSNBC is after the jump.

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