May 18, 2026
(NEW YORK, NY – May 18, 2026) – MS NOW, the official media partner for the Center for American Progress’ 2026 IDEAS Conference, will moderate key conversations with top political leaders on Tuesday, May 19, and the program will stream on ms.now and MS NOW’s YouTube channel. In addition, MS NOW will air a two-hour primetime special featuring the newsmaking moments and in-depth conversations on May 22 at 9 p.m. ET.
MS NOW anchors serving as moderators include The Beat’s Ari Melber, All In’s Chris Hayes, The Briefing’s Jen Psaki,The Weeknight’s Symone Sanders Townsend and Alicia Menendez, The Weekend’s Jonathan Capehart, and The Weekend: Primetime’s Catherine Rampell.
The 2026 IDEAS conference will feature conversations with elected officials and leading voices in politics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Sen. Raphael Warnock, Sen. Andy Kim, Rep. Robert Garcia, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and more.
On television, MS NOW reaches 32 million Americans every week and continues to have one of the most engaged audiences in all of television, with the average viewer watching more than nine hours each week, more than any broadcast network. MS NOW has quadrupled its weekday primetime audience over the last 20 years, averaging 1.5 million viewers in April 2026, up from 383,000 in April 2006.
MS NOW continues to lead the pack as one of the most influential news organizations on non-linear platforms, recording over 2.1 billion combined views across YouTube and TikTok so far this year, with more views on YouTube than ABC News, CBS News and NBC News combined. MS NOW users continue to spend more time on ms.now than on The Washington Post, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal, and reaches more unique visitors than Politico, Axios, and The Atlantic. MS NOW also recorded over 140 million audio downloads in 2025, now with over 20 original podcasts and 22 showcasts.
PRESS CONTACTS
Claudia Meyer-Samargia
Claudia.Meyer-Samargia@versantmedia.com
Ryan Collins
