The Beat with Ari Melber: 6 PM ET Weeknights on MS NOW
The Beat with Ari Melber airs weeknights from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM ET on MS NOW, the network formerly branded MSNBC. It has held the 6 o’clock hour since it premiered on July 24, 2017, and the June 2026 overhaul left it where it was.
How to Watch The Beat Live Free
The 6 PM hour streams live on our MS NOW live stream free page, in a browser, with no cable provider login. The audio-only feed is the lower-bandwidth option. UK viewers add five hours to Eastern Time, and central Europe adds six. For a few weeks each spring and autumn the US and Europe change their clocks on different dates, and the gap is one hour smaller. For readers in Europe that puts the show late at night, which is why the weekend replay matters.
The 6 PM Hour, Tracked
Six o’clock was historically hard for the network to fill. Here is how the hour has changed hands, and what surrounds it now.
| Date | What happened in the 6 PM weekday hour |
|---|---|
| Before July 2017 | For the Record with Greta Van Susteren, which ended |
| July 24, 2017 | The Beat with Ari Melber premieres on MSNBC |
| 2024 | The Beat Weekend added on Saturday afternoons |
| November 17, 2025 | The show takes the MS NOW name after the MSNBC run ends on November 14 |
| June 15, 2026 | Daytime overhaul changes the hours around it; The Beat stays at 6 PM |
| Today | Deadline: White House (4 to 6 PM) leads in, The Weeknight (7 PM) follows |
What the Show Does
The Beat mixes reporting, one-on-one interviews, panels and special reports, with a legal lens that follows from its host, who is MS NOW’s chief legal correspondent. It also books musical and cultural guests, and Melber has used rap lyrics to explain a point of law, a habit the rapper Havoc singled out for praise.
- Fallback Friday: a recurring end-of-week segment.
- Interview series: long-form conversations under the names Mavericks, The Summit Series and Open Mind.
- Guest hosts: Jason Johnson, Katie Phang, Ayman Mohyeldin and Melissa Murray have all covered the hour.
Past guests include Kamala Harris, Steve Bannon and Joe Arpaio. Sam Nunberg’s interview on the show is one of its best-known; he later credited it with his decision to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s investigation. The program has been nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy for outstanding live interview in 2020, and again at the 46th awards for an interview with Stephen Miller. As of May 2025, the show was the second most-watched cable news program in its time slot by total viewers, according to the show’s Wikipedia entry.
Who Ari Melber Is
Melber is an attorney, and he says so on his own channel, which also lists a 2016 Emmy for his Supreme Court reporting. He was a co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle in 2013, and he is now MS NOW’s chief legal correspondent as well as the host of The Beat. That dual role is the through-line of the show: a lawyer reading the news for an audience that mostly is not one.
FAQ
What time is The Beat with Ari Melber on? 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM ET, Monday through Friday on MS NOW. That is 3 PM Pacific and 11 PM in the UK.
Is The Beat on weekends? Saturday at 4:00 PM ET carries The Beat: Weekend, a replay of the week’s Melber hours. Sunday at 4:00 PM is the Deadline: White House equivalent.
When did The Beat start? July 24, 2017, on MSNBC, replacing For the Record with Greta Van Susteren in the 6 PM hour. It took the MS NOW name on November 17, 2025.
Who is Ari Melber? He is MS NOW’s chief legal correspondent and the host of The Beat. He is a lawyer as well as a broadcaster.
Who fills in when Melber is off? Recent guest hosts have included Jason Johnson, Katie Phang, Ayman Mohyeldin and Melissa Murray.
Can I watch The Beat free? Yes. The live stream linked above carries MS NOW in HD with no cable login.
Around the 6 PM Hour
The Beat follows Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace and leads into The Weeknight at 7 PM. After that comes All In with Chris Hayes at 8 PM, then Rachel Maddow on Mondays at 9 PM. For the morning side of the network, see Stephanie Ruhle’s new 9 AM show. The whole grid is on the MS NOW schedule.