MSNBC is shaking up its weekend schedule, adding a panel show and closing the hour hosted by Medhi Hasan.

Hasan will lose his weekend opinion show but will remain at NBCUniversal’s progressive news network as a political analyst and fill-in. His weekly program on streaming network Peacock is also canceled due to too few viewers.

Hasan’s hour

want to

are absorbed by the host

Ayman Mohyeldin

the program of which will be expanded to two hours.

MSNBC is also expanding host Alex Witt’s weekend newscast “MSNBC Reports” to three hours. She will pick up the hour that was anchored

Yasmin Vossoughian

who continues as a national reporter at MSNBC

.

A new two-hour discussion program, “The Weekend,” features MSNBC weekend hosts Symone Sanders-Townsend and Alicia Menendez. They will be joined by former MSNBC contributor Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

“The Weekend,” which will be set in Washington

,DC,

airs at 8 a.m. Eastern starting January 13.

The changes at MSNBC have been under consideration for months, according to two people familiar with the plans, which are being implemented to reduce costs.

MSNBC’s weekend ratings trail Fox News and CNN and are much lower than the rest of the week

,

when the network is performing well with programs anchored by Ari Melber, Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow. News networks typically make budget-driven programming changes at the end of the year.

In previous election cycles, MSNBC has also adjusted its weekend schedule to allow for additional coverage of the presidential primary season.

But the timing could pack a punch

back among the followers of Hasan. The British-American presenter, who is Muslim and previously worked at Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera,

Al Jazzera,

is an outspoken critic of the Israeli military response to the terrorist attack

S

by Hamas in October. 7.

Hasan joined MSNBC in 2021.

Other weekend hosts are moving to new time periods. Katie Phang’s Saturday program moves to

noon 12. w/SB check if this is noon or midnight/cdz [and there is your answer!]

Eastern. Jonathan Capehart’s weekend schedule shifts to 6:00 PM Eastern.

Ali Velshi will be his two-

o’clock

program

,

which airs Saturdays and Sundays at 10 a.m. Eastern.