It’s being called a Sunday Shake-up. Chuck Todd is leaving Meet the Press. It’s an interesting development with the timing falling as the presidential primary season is taking off. He will be NBC News’s chief political analyst. He will continue producing his Chuck Toddcast and Meet the Press Reports podcasts.

Todd made the announcement during Sunday’s show that it wasn’t his last show but it would be his last summer hosting Meet the Press. Staff was told in a memo from NBC News President of Editorial Rebecca Blumenstein and NBC News Senior Vice President of Politics Carrie Budoff Brown.

Today we close our show with an announcement from @chucktodd:

"While today is not my final show, this will be my final summer here at Meet the Press. … I am really proud of what this team and I have built over the last decade." pic.twitter.com/sgeUcNR3C5

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 4, 2023

Todd said that he would rather leave “a little bit too soon than stay a tad too long” but I’d say that ship sailed. I’m not impartial on the topic, though, because I was a regular viewer of the show back in the day when Tim Russert was host. Russert died in June 2008. Since then the show has taken a nose dive as far as I’m concerned. Russert was fair and treated all politicians the same on his show. He asked them all tough questions and was famous for putting up quotes or video to show how someone had flipped on an issue for political expediency. Todd replaced David Gregory in 2014. Gregory was truly horrible, from a conservative point of view. Todd has not been much better. I’m happy to see his time coming to an end.

His bosses gave him a nice send-off.

“Under Chuck’s thoughtful and passionate leadership, Meet the Press has sustained its historic role as the indispensable news program on Sunday mornings,” Blumenstein and Brown wrote in their memo. “Through his penetrating interviews with many of the most important newsmakers, the show has played an essential role in politics and policy, routinely made front-page news, and framed the thinking in Washington and beyond.”

He’ll be around until September, though. He is being replaced by Kristen Welker then. That isn’t an improvement if the bosses were looking for a more fair and balanced host. Apparently, they were not. She’s as partisan as the rest of them.

Todd has been criticized by progressives for being too deferential toward Republican lawmakers and that is a laughable attack. Anything short of the vitriol spouted on MSNBC is not acceptable as vile enough toward Republicans, I guess. Welker considers Todd her mentor so that’s all you need to know about her interviewing style. She is currently the chief White House correspondent for NBC News and she co-anchors NBC’s Weekend TODAY. She has filled in for Todd and hosts Meet the Press NOW on Mondays and Tuesdays. She isn’t a surprise pick

“[Welker] has masterfully moderated primary and general election presidential debates and her sharp questioning of lawmakers is a masterclass in political interviews,” Blumenstein and Brown wrote. “She is a dogged reporter who relishes getting big scoops and is widely admired throughout the bureau and the network for her deeply collaborative nature.”

Todd also sang her praises in his monologue. “I’ve had the privilege of working with her from essentially her first day and let me just say she’s the right person in the right moment,” he said. “This is exactly how I always hoped this would end, that I’d be passing the baton to her.”

Welker moderated the final presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in October 2020 in Nashville. She wasn’t as horrible as liberal journalists usually are in those events but she wasn’t an impartial moderator by any means. She clearly favored Biden.

The show will likely benefit from a shake-up, at least in the short term. Conservative viewers have little to be happy about with the choice of his replacement but it’s not like there is a big pool of conservative-friendly reporters or contributors at NBC News to choose from.

For me, it’s good riddance to Chuck Todd in my Sunday morning political show routine. I don’t hold much hope that the new host will do much better but at least she doesn’t have a mouth I’d like to punch when she speaks. Not that I condone violence or am a violent person myself. I don’t and I’m not. It’s just a personal observation.