The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle

The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle is an American nightly news and politics television program airing weeknights at 11:00 pm ET on MSNBC that premiered on September 6, 2016. It was hosted by Brian Williams^[1] until December 9, 2021. The show began utilizing a rotating list of guest hosts on December 13, 2021. Stephanie Ruhle was named the subsequent full time host on March 2, 2022.

The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
Genre	News program Political journalism
Created by	Phil Griffin
Presented by	Brian Williams (2016–2021) Stephanie Ruhle (2021–present)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	6 (as of September 2021)
Production
Executive producers	Patrick Burkey (2016–2017) Colleen King (2018–2019) Jack Bohrer (2019–2020) Jonathan Wald (2020–present)
Producer	Julie Morse
Production location	New York City
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	MSNBC
Release	September 6, 2016 (2016-09-06) – present
Related
NBC Nightly News The News with Brian Williams

History

Former title card, used during Brian Williams's tenure from 2016 to 2021

Brian Williams was host of The 11th Hour from 2016 to 2021, following his departure from the NBC network that year, rotating guest hosts began on December 13 and continued until March 1

The show launched on September 6, 2016, as a temporary program wrapping up the election news of the day, while previewing stories that will be top-ticket news items the next morning.^[2] It replaced a rerun of All In with Chris Hayes.

The program was Williams' second show in MSNBC's primetime schedule, as he formerly hosted The News with Brian Williams, which aired on the network from 1996 to 2002 before moving to CNBC. Originally the program was Monday to Thursday only, and despite its name, aired for only a half hour. The last half hour of Hardball aired following the half hour program.^[3] At times the program was extended due to breaking news coverage. The program expanded to Friday nights in January and on March 20, 2017, was extended to one hour daily.^[4] On April 13, 2017, MSNBC officially extended the program to an hour long.^[5]

Under Williams, the program primarily featured interviews with reporters covering the major stories of the evening, panels composed of former government officials and subject matter experts, and the occasional politician. Williams eschewed the conflict-ridden panels of competing opinion shows. Interviews with newsmakers were either live or to tape as close to air time as possible, to maintain immediacy. Similar to the original Nightline which focused on the Iran hostage crisis, the program focused primarily on the actions of the presidency of Donald Trump and Williams led each broadcast noting the number of days since the Trump presidency began, as well as how many days remain before it ended.^[6] During the presidency of Joe Biden began, the program counted the number of days of the Biden administration and mostly discussed Biden administration actions.^[7]

Stephanie Ruhle became host on March 2, 2022.

After the 2016 election, the program continued to air despite its initial billing as a temporary program.^[8]

NBC News contributors Nicolle Wallace and Eugene Robinson provided commentary on most of the 2016 editions. Wallace also served as a substitute anchor in Williams' absence. Wallace's duties on the program resulted in her hosting her own show, Deadline: White House.^[9][10]

Williams announced on the November 9, 2021, episode of The 11th Hour with Brian Williams that he would be leaving NBC News and MSNBC at the expiration of his contract the following month, after five years hosting the show and 28 years with the networks.^[11][12][13] Williams' final broadcast was December 9, on which he announced that the show would continue to air and have rotating guest hosts such as Ali Velshi and Chris Jansing from December 13, 2021 to February 25, 2022.^[14]

On January 27, 2022, it was reported that Stephanie Ruhle, who had been part of the rotation while hosting MSNBC Reports will become The 11th Hour's new permanent host.^[15] The first episode with Ruhle as permanent host aired on March 2.^[16] Since Ruhle became host, the program no longer counts the number of days of a president's administration.

On May 27, 2022, following the Robb Elementary School shooting, the show aired a special titled Enough Is Enough that discusses gun culture in the United States.

Format

Under Ruhle, the show's "A-Block" features a tease, a short monologue, and a lengthy discussion with its "Lead-off Panel" of typically 3 guests and Ruhle. The rest of the show features segments focused on the day's developments in politics and economics. The show is typically broadcast from MSNBC's Studio 3A at its headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. During breaking news coverage that may warrant it, The 11th Hour pre-empts a rerun of The Rachel Maddow Show (Mondays) or The Briefing with Jen Psaki (Tuesdays through Fridays).

Guest hosts for The 11th Hour include Ali Velshi, Alicia Menendez, Melissa Murray, Symone Sanders-Townsend, Catherine Rampell, and Ayman Mohyeldin.

Segments

• Money, Power, and Politics - segment focusing on the role of money in politics
• Keynote - one-on-one interview with a special guest
• The Last Thing Before We Go - good news-themed segment before the show concludes

Since 2024, the program also airs a "nightcap", which previously aired only on Friday before expanding to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after the 2024 United States presidential election, that recaps all the stories from the day with a panel of guests throughout the hour. The Friday's "nightcap" re-airs on Saturday nights.