“Hello! And welcome to Ronan Farrow Daily!” exclaimed Ronan Farrow in a splashy introduction, as the young MSNBC host announced the topics he would cover on Monday’s program.
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Various yellow background word cloud chyrons popped up behind the Rhodes Scholar and trumpeted the young pundit as a “Spokesperson for Youth.”
The subject matter was decidedly highbrow in Farrow’s debut episode as his show aired segments on the political crisis in Ukraine and the Kenyan food aid controversy. However, Farrow’s show didn’t seem to veer too off the reservation of archetypical MSNBC programming — for those counting at home, Chris Christie got name-dropped once. Vocativ gave a show a bit of a Vice News flavor with a taped segment on marijuana dumpster divers in Colorado. They will continue to produce similar segments in episodes to come.
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While Farrow set a light-hearted tone for the show with jokes in his introduction citing Stephen Colbert as one of his role models, he later had on esteemed guests like former Secretary of Defense William Cohen and Delaware governor Jack Markel to discuss harder news. Following that, Alex Wagner and Michael Steele came on to debate parental corporal punishment — reminiscent of a debate that would normally air on The Cycle. References to social media were peppered in sporadically through the show.
In addition, Farrow introduced a playful Hero and Zero of the Day segment which — probably much to the chagrin of MSNBC producers –evoked memories of Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person In The World.
Farrow valiantly attempted to reach out to younger audience sentiments, especially when he made a plea to viewers to send him feedback on when they would be done playing off student loans, but it remains to be seen if this youth-centric coverage will translate in higher ratings in demo.
Watch Ronan introduce his show below via MSNBC: