Alec Baldwin Says His New MSNBC Show Won’t Go For Comedy Central Laughs

Alec Baldwin has endured no small number of “very frustrating and unsatisfactory” interviews, so he’s eager to get it right when his MSNBC show launches Friday. “I want to do a show that was more like how I would like to be treated if I were the guest on a show,” he told Politico in an interview. Griping about those half-hearted sit-downs, he said: “It was a very tedious format, and the entertainment press is just the worst of all. Ninety percent of them are just going through the motions.” The 30 Rock alum vows that won’t be the case when he asks the questions on Up Late With Alec Baldwin, his new weekly current events and culture talk show. Baldwin’s going up against HBO’s Bill Maher at 10 p.m. ET Fridays but says he doesn’t really see him — or many other nighttime hosts – as a competitor. “I don’t think it’ll ever be a show you’d see on Comedy Central. We’re not going to go for those laughs,” he told Politico. “[Jon] Stewart. Bill Maher. [Stephen] Colbert. … They dominate that world, and I have no desire to compete with that at all.” Baldwin said his initial idea was to do a network show in the vein of his podcast Here’s The Thing. He said there was no real estate available on NBC, but MSNBC chief Phil Griffin “jumped up and said he had a time slot.” How does he feel about being the newest recruit in the cable news wars? “I’m going from a world where it was — certainly never all about me, but it was more about me,” Baldwin said, “and now I’m one of many in this factory.”

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