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The eager-beaver publicists for “legacy media” in the Hollywood trade magazines can be expected to write some puketastic PR in the leadup to Election Night coverage. But this headline for Brian Sternberg’s valentine in Variety should come with a complimentary air sickness bag: 

MSNBC’s Primetime ‘Avengers’: Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Joy Reid Assemble to Battle Cable News’ Old Rules

That’s not the only metaphor, there’s this gem:

Maddow is “the captain of our ship. She is Captain Kirk,” says Reid, referring to the commanding “Star Trek” character.

For regular NewsBusters readers, it might recall then-PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor shortly after the 2020 election comparing Biden’s cabinet picks to the Avengers. When news breaks, Rachel and Nicolle and Joy break out! 

When “The Avengers” are needed, no one can ignore the alert.

Reid, Wallace and Maddow look nothing like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor or any of the other super-powered characters who populate the well-watched Marvel films from Disney. And yet, on MSNBC, where each anchors her own program, they are part of an assemblage that is being convened with greater frequency.

“When there’s a moment,” says Rashida Jones, MSNBC’s president, the network likes to “bring the team together and elevate the seriousness of the news.”

NEWS? Is that what they’re doing in primetime? The executives like that it offers viewers the whole menu of hot-take options: 

Internally, executives call the concept “The Avengers” and have employed it more than 20 times this year.

On a recent September evening, the “Avengers” were spotted clambering one by one into a studio. Their mission: to analyze the presidential debate between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, all from NBCUniversal’s New York headquarters. First came Chris Hayes –”I’m the only one who’s on time!” he joked – followed soon by Jen Psaki, armed with hot coffee; Maddow, entering quietly; a gregarious Stephanie Ruhle; and then Reid. Melber, Wallace and O’Donnell would join later, while Wagner held forth from Philadelphia, the site of the actual parley.

There’s no world-beating villain to vanquish when the MSNBC personalities team up, but they are in fact doing battle with pernicious forces.

Sternberg means market forces, but we all know the supervillain is Trump. Every MSNBC watchers knows how they plot this. 

MSNBC has grouped anchors together at many times in its history, but the “Avengers” concept really started to gain traction in 2022. That’s when one executive in a brainstorming session raised the idea of trying to harness the conversation that takes place between the network’s hosts for an on-air concept, says Jones, as “if you listen to them talking in the hallway.” Viewers would see “collegiality” and “authenticity,” she adds, and someone asked, “‘How do we make that the show?’ And that’s how it was born.”

At the same time, Maddow, Wallace and Reid noticed an intensifying of the conversations they would have every day, often via text. They might discuss what their sources are telling them or their takes on different issues. Getting that on camera made sense, says Reid. “What the audience is getting out of that is our collective journalistic enterprise – but in triplicate,” she says. “It’s so much more powerful when we are all doing the work at the same time.”

We also learn that Maddow brings snacks. She “often carries a large bag filled with various kinds of jerky that she always offers to her colleagues. The overture is not often welcome.”