Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC, announced the show on July 15, 2009, and described it as a "pre-game show" for
Morning Joe.
Mike Barnicle often filled in for original host
Willie Geist, jokingly referring to the show as "
Way Too Old (or
Elderly) with Mike Barnicle", while
Peter Alexander also covered for Geist. On September 24, 2012,
NBC News announced that Geist would be named co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of
Today, filling the co-host slot formerly held by
Savannah Guthrie (who now anchors the 7-9 a.m. portion of the morning program). The original executive producer was
Chris Licht, who was also the co-creator and executive producer of
Morning Joe before leaving MSNBC to become executive producer of
CBS This Morning and Vice President of Programming at CBS.
Way Too Early was not branded "Brewed by
Starbucks" like
Morning Joe until the sponsorship deal expired in September 2013. Both shows had similar graphics packages, are broadcast from the same set, and frequently reference each other. On May 8, 2013, MSNBC announced that CNBC reporter
Brian Shactman would be the new regular host of
Way Too Early. He began his anchoring duties for the show May 13, 2013. On January 3, 2014, MSNBC announced that
Thomas Roberts would be the new regular host of
Way Too Early starting on January 13. Roberts left in mid 2015 to do various daytime anchor duties, with no guest host announced.
Way Too Early aired its final regular edition on July 22, 2016, from July 25 to August 12, 2016,
Way Too Early expanded to 1 hour, taking over
First Look briefly. The next Monday,
Way Too Early was replaced by
Morning Joe First Look, with a few former
Way Too Early segments blended into the second half-hour. On September 10, 2020, MSNBC announced it would replace
First Look with a revival of
Way Too Early, now anchored by
Kasie Hunt, starting on September 21. Hunt left the program and NBC News on July 16, 2021, departing for a job at
CNN (initially at its short-lived streaming service
CNN+, but later moving to its competing early-morning program
Early Start in August 2023). In the meantime, the show was hosted by a rotation of guest anchors, including, in particular,
Jonathan Lemire; on October 25, it was announced that Lemire would become the new regular host. On December 9, 2024, it was announced that Lemire would become a co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of
Morning Joe, with
Ali Vitali succeeding Lemire as host of
Way Too Early beginning on January 6, 2025. ==Segments==