August 30, 2019
All In With Chris Hayes is a part of the evening lineup of political talk shows on Comcast‘s cable news channel, MSNBC. On Friday evening the show went ‘on the air’ live from Studio 6A in Rockefeller Center with a studio audience that included the Inwood Gazette.
A couple of hundred people had obtained passes for this event, and the Rockefeller Center staff guided them smoothly through a labyrinth of long lines, a grand staircase, ticket checks, golden elevators, security screenings, waiting rooms, and finally to seats in the studio itself where a self-described comedian warmed up the crowd for Chris.
By a show of hands it was determined that almost half the audience were New Yorkers, with the other half in town from faraway places including Indiana and Ireland. With that out of the way, ‘on air’ etiquette was summarized: phones off except during commercial breaks, cheers and clapping are welcome but no booing please, and if the camera finds you don’t wave because you’ll look like a jerk.
Chris came out at precisely 8 o’clock and did some standup commentary about the Electoral College before bringing out his first guest, FEC Chair Ellen L. Weintraub. She’s been in the news this week because one of her fellow Commissioners resigned leaving the panel one vote short of a quorum, the prereq to holding deliberations or issuing official rulings. Weintraub assured viewers that despite that, the bread and butter work of the Commission would continue: career civil servants will continue posting campaign contribution data online.
Next up was Rep Will Hurd of Texas who recently announced that he won’t seek another term in Congress. As a Republican running in a district that’s 75% Latino he faced the prospect of going down to defeat with Trump who is reviled in this border area of the state, particularly after ordering those Texans’ land seized for the wall he wants to construct. The former CIA spook stated it was time to serve his country in a different way and somewhat mysteriously left it at that.
Between guests stagehands moved seating elements around and the warmup comedian reminded the audience to clap. Washington Post Reporter David Fahrenthold then joined Chris and shared a story that he’d covered about the Trump Foundation. The show’s final segment was an informal panel of pundits and journos discussing the amount of media attention Trump gets.
In a post-show Q&A with the studio audience, Hayes tipped that the live format felt like it worked well and there’s a likelihood they’ll stick with it going forward. A check of the show’s website revealed that tickets are available for the show on September 6th. So maybe “live from New York, it’s Friday night‘ will be a thing this Fall.
