The son of Mia Farrow will host a new weekday show that will allow people 'to be a part of the story.'
- Oct 17, 2013
AceShowbiz - It's official; Ronan Farrow joins MSNBC as a host. The 25-year-old, whose paternity was recently questioned due to his mother Mia Farrow's statement in an interview, will lead a new weekday, one-hour program that will launch in early 2014.
The announcement was made Wednesday, October 16 by Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC, after the rumors first emerged earlier this month. Griffin said in a press release, "Ronan has established himself as a provocative, independent journalist capable of challenging people's assumptions and empowering audiences. His show will be a game changer for MSNBC, representing a fresh approach to how we deliver news."
Farrow added, "This is a new generation of news show for a new, more engaged generation of viewers. It's a show about why the news matters to you - and what you can do to be a part of the story. I'm excited to shake up people's expectations for cable news. And to get a ton of Twitter followers."
He elaborated on his goal with his show during a phone interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "I think what people crave is more involvement in the story," he shared. "There has been a democratization of information. But what they still crave, and what I crave as a TV viewer, is a guide on how people can have agency in the story. And this show is all about empowering people to do that. People want a return to real democracy. They want to respond to these events [in Washington] that there is so much frustration about."
Griffin also expressed his confidence with Farrow, saying, "Within 20 minutes I just knew that he had a certain presence and confidence. He knew what he wanted to say. I just had a sense that the guy could do it. Whatever that thing is that enables people to communicate really well, he had it. We're always trying evolve the message here and how to get ideas across. And he was an original thinker. And that's the most important thing."
Farrow graduated from Yale Law School in 2009 and is a former foreign policy official in the first Obama administration. He founded the State Department's Office of Global Youth Issues and reported to the Secretary of State as the United States' first Special Adviser for Global Youth during the Arab Spring revolutions.
The human-rights activist and journalist, who has been considered the only biological child of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen, recently found himself in the headlines as his mother told Vanity Fair that Frank Sinatra could be his father. To THR, he admitted, "It is an annoyance to have such a high-profile distraction from the substance of what I'm working on; a very meaningful project like this TV show that I think can actually make a difference to people." He added, "It's a story that's been out there for a long time. If anything I was surprised to see it go so far this time."
