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The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell

American liberal and daily television news program of the network MS NOW

Summary

American liberal and daily television news program of the network MS NOW

Field	Value
image	The-last-word-with-lawrence-odonnell-0.jpg
genre	Editorial News Program
runtime	60 minutes
location	New York City, New York
Universal City, California
presenter	Lawrence O'Donnell
Guest hosts (Fridays only)
country	United States
network	MSNBC
first_aired
last_aired
network2	MS NOW
first_aired2
last_aired2	present
related	{{Plainlist

Universal City, California Guest hosts (Fridays only)

The Rachel Maddow Show and The Briefing with Jen Psaki
The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell is an American weeknight news and political commentary program on MS NOW. The program airs live at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time Mondays through Fridays, and is hosted by Lawrence O'Donnell from Mondays to Thursdays, with rotating guest hosts (sitting for O'Donnell) on Fridays. O'Donnell is described by MSNBC as "providing the last word on the biggest issues and most compelling stories of the day."

As of May 2025, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell is the second-most watched cable news program by total day and key 24-54 demo viewers in its 10 p.m. ET time slot, behind rival Gutfeld! and ahead of CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip.

History

The show originally premiered in the 10:00 pm slot Monday-Thursday on September 27, 2010, with the first episode featuring Vice President Joe Biden and Countdown host Keith Olbermann. The show was moved to the 8 pm slot in January 2011 when Olbermann's show was canceled. Last Word returned to its original 10:00 p.m. slot in October 2011.

Between March and April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, MSNBC temporarily replaced the Tuesday evening broadcasts with NBC News Special Report hours either hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt or Today co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.

During the 2022 United States elections, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell was temporarily replaced on Fridays with The Kornacki Countdown hosted by Steve Kornacki during the 2022 midterm elections from October 14 to Election Day November 8.

Since 2024, the program also airs a recap on Sunday as part of Prime Weekend, which also recaps from The Rachel Maddow Show, Deadline: White House, The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, The Briefing with Jen Psaki, All In with Chris Hayes and The Weeknight.

Format

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell typically features a lengthy monologue in the "A-Block," followed by interviews and discussions with guests throughout the remainder of the show.

Replays of the show are available on MS NOW's app (accessible from the US only). The show is also available as an audio podcast. Guest hosts (every Friday night sitting in for O'Donnell) in the series include Ali Velshi and Jonathan Capehart.

Reception

YouGov, a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, collected 1550 interviews' worth of data between July 2020 and October 2020, and concluded: "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell is the 384th most popular contemporary TV show and the 407th most famous. The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell is described by fans as: Smart, Helpful, Never miss it, Intelligent and Fair." It collated the ratings of American views:

21% POSITIVE opinion
12% NEGATIVE opinion
14% NEUTRAL opinion
47% HAVE HEARD OF YouGov's other findings:
"The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" is more popular among Baby Boomers than among other age groups.
"With 23% positive opinion, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell is more popular among Men than among Women." In April 2025, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell and The Rachel Maddow Show were the only MSNBC shows to appear in the month's top 15 cable news by total viewers, with The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell averaging 1.442 million total viewers.

Notable guests

Joe Biden, Vice President and later President of the United States, appeared on September 27, 2010
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States, appeared on December 19, 2023. Previously appeared as district attorney the night before her election as California Attorney General, November 2010
Charlie Crist, Former member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida's 13th congressional district Florida governor, Independent candidate for U.S. Senate from Florida in 2010, appeared on September 28, 2010
Levi Johnston, Candidate for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, in 2011, appeared on September 28, 2010
Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, appeared on October 5, 2010.
Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and former governor of Vermont, appeared October 5, 2010.
Ron Paul, former Republican Congressman of Texas's 14th congressional district, appeared October 11, 2010.
Valerie Plame, former CIA operative, and husband Joe Wilson appeared on October 19, 2010.
Nancy Pelosi, Former Speaker of the House of Representatives
Mary L. Trump, psychologist, author, and niece of Donald Trump, appeared September 17, 2020.
Mark Kelly, United States Senator from Arizona and husband of former Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, appeared October 5, 2022.
Condoleezza Rice, Former United States Secretary of State, appeared in 2011.

References

Schwartz, Carly. (2011-01-21). "Final Countdown: Keith Olbermann And MSNBC Announce They Are Parting Ways (VIDEO)". [[Huffington Post]].
Gellman, Lindsay. (2010-07-31). "'Last Word': Lawrence O'Donnell MSNBC Show Gets Name". [[The Huffington Post]].
Stelter, Brian. (June 15, 2010). "Lawrence O'Donnell Gets His Own MSNBC Show". [[New York Times]].
Mwachiro, Mark. (2025-05-22). "Tuesday, May 20 Evening Cable News Ratings: Lawrence O'Donnell Claims Total Viewers, Nicole Wallace Takes Demo for MSNBC".
O'Donnell, Lawrence. (2010-09-23). "'Vice President Joe Biden to Appear on Premiere". Twitter.
(2011-10-20). "MSNBC changes primetime lineup".
(2022-10-14). "MSNBC, Fox, Telemundo offering specials ahead of midterms".
(2020). "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell". [[YouGov]].
Mwachiro, Mark. (2025-04-30). "Here Are the Cable News Ratings for April 2025".
O'Donnell, Lawrence. (2010-10-04). "Michael Steele and Howard Dean both join us tomorrow night.". Twitter.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ms-now-original-programming 2010-american-television-series-debuts 2010s-american-television-news-shows 2020s-american-television-news-shows american-english-language-television-shows

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