Alex Wagner Biography
Alex Wagner is an American journalist. She is the host of both Alex Wagner Tonight on MSBNC and Netfix The Mole reboot.
Wagner attended Woodrow Wilson High School (renamed Jackson-Reed in 2022) in Washington, D.C., where she graduated in 1995. She then went on to study art history and literature at Brown University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1999.
Wagner has also received several honorary degrees and awards for her work as a journalist and author. In 2017, she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Loras College, her father’s alma mater.
In 2018, she received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Brown University. Later in 2019, she received the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism from Columbia University. And in 2020, she received the PEN America Award for Literary Citizenship.
Alex Wagner Age
Wagner is 47 years old as of 2024. She was born on November 27, 1977, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Wagner Husband/Alex Wagner and Sam Kass
Wagner has been married to Sam Kass since 2014. They have two children together: a son named Cy Kass, born in June 2017, and on April 16, 2019, they were blessed with a second child named Rafael.
Kass is a former White House chef and senior policy advisor for nutrition under the Obama administration. He is also the founder of Trove Worldwide, a food innovation company that aims to improve health and sustainability through food systems.
Wagner and Sam Kass met in 2013 at a White House event where Kass was cooking. They started dating soon after and got engaged in August 2014. They tied the knot on August 30, 2014, at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a farm-to-table restaurant in Pocantico Hills, New York. The wedding was attended by about 150 guests, including President Barack Obama and his family.
Alex Wagner Ethnicity
Wagner was born on November 27, 1977, in Washington, D.C. She is of mixed ethnicity, as her mother, Tin Swe Thant, is an immigrant from Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma), and her father, Carl Wagner, is of Luxembourger and Irish descent. Her mother became a naturalized U.S. citizen before attending Swarthmore College, and her father was a prominent Democratic Party political consultant who co-chaired Bill Clinton’s ’92 presidential campaign.
Alex Wagner has explored her ethnic identity and heritage in her book, FutureFace: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging (One World/ Random House ), which was published in 2018. In the book, she traces her family history across continents and generations, using DNA tests, genealogical records, and personal stories. She also examines the meaning of race, identity, and belonging in America today.
Alex Wagner Ratings
Wagner is currently the host of Alex Wagner Tonight on MSNBC, which airs four nights a week at 9 pm ET. She took over the prime time slot from Rachel Maddow in mid-August 2022. However, her show has not been able to draw the same level of audience as Maddow’s did.
In September 2022, on evenings Alex Wagner Tonight aired, MSNBC saw a stunning year-over-year drop from 2021, when Maddow hosted. In the key 25-54 advertising demo, Wagner’s show lost 50% of Maddow’s audience, sinking from an average in 2021 of 304,000 demo viewers to 151,000 in 2022. And in total viewers, the numbers were down 34%, from 2.4 million to 1.6 million.
To be fair, no one expected that Wagner would fill the massive void left by Maddow, a once-in-a-generation type talent who became a key #Resistance icon during Donald Trump’s presidency. Cable news viewership, in general, has also been in steady decline since Trump left office. And Wagner has outperformed MSNBC Prime, the show that temporarily filled Maddow’s vacancy before Wagner took the helm.
But the drop in viewers must certainly be distressing to executives at MSNBC , who are hoping to compete with CNN and Fox News in the ratings race. As one former television executive told CNN Business, “It’s way worse than: we don’t expect [Wagner] to perform at Rachel levels,” describing the rating plunge as “brutal” and “very troubling.”
Why Did Alex Wagner Leave MSNBC
Wagner did not leave MSNBC entirely , but she did leave her previous daytime program Now with Alex Wagner , which aired from 2011 to 2015. The show was canceled in July 2015, as part of a network-wide overhaul that aimed to transition the network’s daytime programming to more breaking news reporting and less political commentary and opinion.
At the time, MSNBC President Phil Griffin praised Wagner for her “passion, intelligence and perspective” and said that she would host a weekend program, but those plans were later abandoned.
Instead, Wagner joined CBS News as a contributor and co-anchor of CBS This Morning Saturday , where she worked from November 2016 until March 2018. She also became a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine in April 2016, and a co-host of The Circus on Showtime in January 2018.
She returned to MSNBC in August 2022, as the host of Alex Wagner Tonight, replacing Rachel Maddow in the prime time slot.
Does Alex Wagner Have a Child
Yes, Alex has two children with her husband Sam Kass: a son named Cy Kass, born in June 2017, and another named Rafael, born in April 2019.
Alex Wagner Air Force
Wagner is not affiliated with the Air Force , but she has reported on military issues and veterans affairs as a journalist. In 2014, she hosted a special episode of Now with Alex Wagner from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she interviewed cadets, faculty members, and former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. She also discussed topics such as sexual assault prevention, diversity and inclusion, and leadership development at the academy.
In 2018, she wrote an article for The Atlantic titled “The Military Has Become Trump’s Favorite Prop,” where she criticized President Trump’s use of the armed forces for political purposes and his disregard for their values and traditions. She argued that Trump’s actions undermined the military’s credibility and morale, and threatened its role as a nonpartisan institution.
Alex Wagner Salary
Wagner’s salary is not publicly disclosed, but it is estimated that she earns between $500,000 and $1 million per year as a journalist and author.
Alex Wagner Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, her net worth is around $3 million as of 2022.
