PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton is a one-hour political talk show broadcast on MSNBC, hosted by Al Sharpton. It began on August 29, 2011 on MSNBC's weekday 6 PM slot, the first time that the slot had been occupied by a branded series since January 2011. In August 2015, it was announced that the series would move to just once a week on Sundays at 8AM starting on October 4, 2015. The series aired its final weekday episode on September 4, 2015.
History
6 PM slot prior to renaming
PoliticsNation was the formal renaming of the 6 PM weekday slot that had been occupied by a broadcast named MSNBC Live Sharpton had served as host of the slot since July, and was preceded by Cenk Uygur from January to June. Prior to Uygur, the slot had been occupied by The Ed Show from April 6, 2009 to January 24, 2011, and by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from March 17, 2008 to April 3, 2009.
Al Sharpton and MSNBC
Sharpton's involvement with MSNBC began after June 29, 2011 when he became the primary substitute host for The Ed Show, leading to press speculation that Sharpton could attain his own series on the network in the vein of Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and Christopher Hayes.
Reception
After beginning his appearances as substitute host for Ed Schultz, conservative commentators and outlets slammed MSNBC's decision to hire Sharpton as a contributor ; EURweb cited mockery of Sharpton by such conservative outlets as Breitbart.tv in particular, doubts were raised by at least one member of the National Association of Black Journalists about Sharpton's ability to host a credible political talk show following past controversial comments, and criticism by African-American journalists raised the possibility of MSNBC having hired Sharpton in order to draw ratings. In response, Tamika Mallory, executive director of the National Action Network rebutted many of the criticisms in an editorial for TV One's NewsOne website, and also likened black criticism of MSNBC's decision to "crabs in a barrel".
Parody
Sharpton's style of delivery, verbalized understanding of topics on PoliticsNation and a live flub with the teleprompter have been the subject of parody, especially on NBC series Saturday Night Live with Kenan Thompson playing Sharpton. It was the subject of a December 10, 2011 skit parodying the flub as well as a May 19, 2012 skit with guest starMick Jagger as a JPMorgan Chase executive. Sharpton himself enjoyed the skits, and had Thompson on his show in February 2015. Sharpton returned the favor by appearing on SNL in March 2016.
