MSNBC has announced that Chris Hayes will take over the 8 PM slot on the channel starting April 1. Hayes currently hosts “Up with Chris Hayes” on Saturdays and Sundays, and has long been viewed as a “next generation” talent for the network, at the age of 34. MSNBC plans to reveal more details on the new show in the coming weeks.

“I am thrilled to be joining Rachel and Lawrence in primetime,” said Hayes in a statement. “I’ve absolutely loved hosting UP on the weekends and I’m looking forward to thinking through the news five nights a week.”

Hayes will be taking the place of Ed Schultz, who will shift to MSNBC’s weekend lineup next month, part of an expansion of weekend programming at the channel.

“Chris has done an amazing job creating a franchise on weekend morning,” said MSNBC president Phil Griffin in a statement. “He’s an extraordinary talent and has made a strong connection with our audience. This is an exciting time for MSNBC.”

Hayes joined MSNBC in 2011, and has served as a regular fill-in host for Rachel Maddow and “The Last Word with Lawrence o’Donnell.” The Times’ Brian Stelter spoke to people at MSNBC, and gathered why the channel decided to go with Hayes:
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MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” is leaving its 8 PM timeslot startung in April, Ed Schultz announced at the end of his program this evening. Schultz will be taking his program to the weekend, where it will air from 5-7 PM.

Schultz said that the decision to move to the weekend was his alone. MSNBC plans to announce the new host during the NBC News Group upfront presentation in New York tomorrow.

“I raised my hand for this assignment for a number of personal and professional reasons,” he said. “My fight on ‘The Ed Show’ has been for the workers and the middle class. This new time slot will give me the opportunity to produce and focus on stories that I care about and are important to American families and American workers.

WATCH:

“I’m thrilled for Ed and happy to be expanding our weekend programming,” said MSNBC president Phil Griffin in a statement. “It’s an exciting time for MSNBC and I’m looking forward to having Ed’s powerful voice on our network for a long time.”

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In his farewell note to staff, departing NBC News president Steve Capus writes, “I have much I hope to accomplish in the next phase of my career.” So, too, do the men and women vying to replace Capus. Capus says NBCU News group Chairman Pat Fili-Krushel “will be meeting with people throughout the division, and articulating her vision for the NBCUniversal News Group.”

There are strong internal candidates, some of whom, it has been announced by Fili-Krushel, will take on additional duties. Alex Wallace (above, right), who oversees “Today,” and “Rock Center” will now oversee “Nightly News,” where she was once EP. Wallace, who’s been with NBC since 2005, would be the first female news president after nine men have held the job since 1968.

Phil Griffin will likely be considered for the job. As president of MSNBC for the last 4 and a half years he has given the network an identity and boosted ratings, consistently topping CNN — a network his close friend Jeff Zucker now runs. A front office and internal concern would be the progressive programming on the network, often not in line with NBC News standards. Mark Hoffman, president of CNBC, cannot be ruled out. Nor can Capus’ deputy, Antoine Sanfuentes, (above, left) who will run day-to-day in the interim.

External candidates are also plentiful…

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MSNBC is facing criticism today about the editing of a portion of the legislative hearing on guns in Hartford, CT earlier this week. Neil Heslin, the father of a Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting victim, was speaking before a committee at which local citizens, including gun rights advocates, attended. MSNBC portrayed a portion of the clip — toward the end of Heslin’s 15 minutes of testimony — as though he was being heckled. The 33-second clip aired on Tamron Hall‘s show, Martin Bashir‘s show and later on Al Sharpton‘s show. Here it is:

But MSNBC edited out the fact that Heslin posed a question: “I wish … I ask if there’s anybody in this room that can give me one reason…,” he began. Fox News produced a segment today taking MSNBC to task over the edit. An MSNBC spokesperson tells WaPo’s Eric Wemple, “We’re reviewing the video in question.”

But the storyline continued into primetime, on Lawrence O’Donnell‘s show. Meanwhile, rather than talk around the issue, CNN’s Piers Morgan actually talked with Heslin. “It didn’t really faze me and it was no more and no less than I would have expected,” he said. “It wasn’t the answer to my question. It was a response.” But was it heckling? MSNBC, for one, has decided it is.

> Update: MSNBC will address the edit on Bashir’s show Wednesday.

> More: Ari Melber, filling in for Bashir, played the entire clip including Heslin’s question. At the end of the clip, Melber said, “Martin and many other who is saw Mr. Heslin’s testimony have called that interruption heckling. Some disagree. He wanted you to hear it in full so you can draw your own conclusion.”

Inside Cable News which has been closely monitoring MSNBC’s programming shift from news to opinion, has this take:

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Chris Matthews is an MSNBC original. His show “Hardball” is older than the network itself, having begun its run on the old “America’s Talking” channel founded by Roger Ailes before moving to CNBC and then MSNBC. Despite approaching his 20th anniversary with NBC, Matthews is considered “the model figure” for the new MSNBC. His boss, network president Phil Griffin tells the AP’s David Bauder Matthews is, “as good as he’s ever been” and “is sort of the model figure for who we are.” Bauder writes,

Matthews symbolized MSNBC’s growing comfort in being a liberal alternative to Fox News Channel. With Keith Olbermann out of sight, Matthews essentially replaced him as the commentator that most annoyed conservative viewers.

“During the run-up to the Iraq War, he just became really, really partisan and became even more so when MSNBC decided to become the anti-Fox,” said Geoff Dickens, who used to watch Matthews as a fan and now monitors him regularly as part of his job with the conservative Media Research Center.

Griffin, who produced “Hardball” for many years before moving on to other jobs at NBC/MSNBC, knows Matthews better than most. Matthews “is at a place in his life where he’s really comfortable in his own skin,” says Griffin. “He’s a statesman.”

About that idea of running for Senate four years ago. Matthews recently said he would have been “one of the stars of the Democratic Party,” had he run and won. But being a party guy might have worn on him quickly. Matthews tells Bauder: “I never want to do what everybody else is doing. I don’t want to be part of the chorus.”

Jeff Zucker‘s return to the ranks of TV network executive will put him in charge of many people he worked with at NBC over the years. It will also put him in direct competition with one of his closest friends. Phil Griffin — now the president of MSNBC — worked at CNN early in his career. Griffin joined NBC’s “Today” first in 1983. And it was during his second stint on the show that he would meet Zucker, who would later become EP of the show. Years later, Zucker would name Griffin president of MSNBC.

Griffin is excited for his old friend, and the battle ahead, telling the New York Times: “[Roger] Ailes on one side, Zucker on the other: Game on.”

At CNN, Zucker will be working with several of his former employees including Soledad O’Brien who was an MSNBC original before moving to NBC and rising to “Weekend Today” co-anchor during the years that Zucker ran the show. Erin Burnett, a former CNBC star who’d been positioned for a greater role at NBC, is now a CNN host. Ashleigh Banfield made a name for herself on MSNBC after the 9/11 attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now she anchors a daytime CNN show.

And it was Zucker who, as CEO of NBCU, allowed Piers Morgan to continue judging “America’s Got Talent” on NBC while taking an offer to host his own primetime CNN show. Morgan has since given up “AGT.”

And Jonathan Wald, EP of Morgan’s show, followed Zucker as executive producer of both “NBC Nightly News” and “Today” in the early 2000s. Wald’s ironic Tweet of the day:

In an exhaustively researched piece, The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone examines the current state of MSNBC, now that President Obama has won reelection. MSNBC is in a unique position, as many of its hosts were unabashedly pro-Obama. Now, the pro-Obama forces and the liberal forces (which are often at odds with the President on issues like drone strikes, tax cuts, etc) are more likely to butt heads.

[MSNBC president Phil] Griffin suggested that Obama’s unwillingness to appear regularly on MSNBC proves the network is “not the home team.” And going forward into the second term, Griffin said his hosts will hold Obama accountable.

“We’re going to hold Obama to his campaign promises,” Griffin said. “And the fact is, there are many things that some of our hosts support him on. But basically, we have a standard, whether it’s the war on terror or getting out of Afghanistan: Is he going to live up to his campaign promises?”

While MSNBC is arguably the most successful progressive network on TV, it is not free from criticism on the left.
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Pat Fili-Krushel, Chairman of the NBC News Group, talks with the Wall Street Journal four months in to her new job overseeing NBCU’s portfolio of news networks. The former Lifetime, ABC and Time Warner executive does not have a news background, admitting, “I have three strong business leaders running day-to-day.”

Fili-Krushel is referring to NBC News president Steve Capus, MSNBC president Phil Griffin and CNBC chief Mark Hoffman. The WSJ writes, “Part of Ms. Fili-Krushel’s job will also be keeping the peace between executives accustomed to running their own fiefs.” Fili Krushel also oversaw last week’s change at the top of the “Today” show.

But for now, she says there won’t be any more “Today”-like turmoil in the months to come. At the moment, she’s on a bit of a listening tour.

“I’m spending a lot of time getting to know everyone,” she said. “I’m still in an exploration phase.”

MSNBC has promoted two of its executives to senior VP level. Deb Finan has been named senior VP of programming, and Yvette Miley has been upped to senior VP and executive editor.

“Deb is indispensable. She’s been with MSNBC since the beginning and is a trusted advisor to me. Deb is key to getting all our programming on the air and her dedication has played a crucial role in our success,” wrote MSNBC president Phil Griffin in a memo to employees today. “Yvette has done a fantastic job leading our dayside team to unprecedented growth, including our largest daytime ratings advantage ever over CNN in October. Her editorial judgment is spot on and she’s inspired us to tell the stories no other cable news network will cover.”

Finan has been with NBC for 20 years, and first joined MSNBC in 1996 when it launched. She was most recently VP of programming and production, a title she has held since 2009. Miley has been with NBC for 21 years, and served as VP of news at NBC’s owned and operated stations before joining MSNBC as executive editor.

Griffin’s memo is after the jump.

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Buried around word 1,130 of Brian Stelter‘s 1,200-word New York Times piece on MSNBC’s election night, its ratings gains, strategy and future plans, is this bit, which, of course, is getting the most attention.

Several MSNBC employees, who spoke about programming plans on the condition of anonymity, said the most likely candidate for a new show was the Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, a frequent substitute for Ms. Maddow. Mr. Klein may start with a weekend time slot, but these people said the 8 p.m. weekday time slot held by Mr. Schultz was also a possibility.

A spokesperson tells TVNewser this morning, “We’re very happy with the performance of our primetime lineup, which topped Fox News Channel three nights this week. There are no changes planned.”

An insider adds Klein is “a rising star” but adds weekday primetime is set. And it seems odd that they would. Thursday night Schultz’s 11pmET re-air topped the re-air of cable news’s #1 show for the last 10 years, “The O’Reilly Factor” among younger viewers. In October, Schultz delivered the best demo viewership in the 8pm hours since March, 2009. Schultz has been in the 8pm timeslot since Oct. 2011. No small feats and thanks in large part to the strategy put in place by MSNBC president Phil Griffin over the past five years. Part of that strategy is grooming new talent, like Melissa Harris-Perry, Chris Hayes and Ezra Klein, who could slide into a weekend primetime hour.