Antonia Hylton will take over MS NOW‘s news-focused weekend afternoons when she launches “The Assignment” on September 12. The program will air from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Hylton takes on a task that has for many years been anchored by Alex Witt. Witt’s last formal weekend telecast is slated to take place this coming weekend.
Hylton’s program will also be based in New York, and is expected to serve as “a weekend destination for the latest political and cultural headlines, with thoughtful conversations and fresh perspectives from leading lawmakers, newsmakers and changemakers,” said Greg Kordick, senior vice president of programming for the Versant Media-backed network, in a memo. Each weekend, Hylton will “help audiences go beyond the headlines, better understand why these stories matter and create space for meaningful dialogue around them.”
Joy Fowlin will serve as the show’s executive producer.
Hylton moves into the weekend role following an MS NOW decision to fill weekend evenings with more taped programming such as the podcasts from Crooked Media that now air on Saturday and Sunday nights. Hylton had been one member of a roundtable featured on an evening version of “The Weekend,” but that version of the program was scrapped under the new plans.
Hylton joined MS NOW in April 2025. She has received a Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Radio/Podcast Coverage, a Peabody Award for Podcast/Radio and was a Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting finalist for her work on the podcast, “Southlake.” She also received an Edward R. Murrow Award for her work on the podcast “Grapevine,” and was named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” in 2020. In 2024, Hylton published “MADNESS: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum.”