Good evening, I'm Dylan Byers.

Welcome back to In the Room, my biweekly private email on the intrigue and inside story behind what’s going on in the media industry. 

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In today's email: the inside story behind Stephanie Ruhle's promotion, Rachel Maddow's mega-deal, Joe Scarborourgh's next payday, and how Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro master-minded it all. Plus new reporting on the executive drama inside CBS News that you won't want to miss...

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“It’s Ari Emanuel’s Network Now”

After Maddow’s work-less-for-more mega-deal, Emanuel has now negotiated a fifth hour for Joe & Mika, and helped Stephanie Ruhle take over for BriWi. What’s going on at MSNBC? (Will they start airing bull-riding at midnight?)

Never underestimate the power of a well-timed leak. Late Wednesday night, Axios scooped that MSNBC's 9 a.m. host Stephanie Ruhle would be taking over Brian Williams' former chair at The 11th Hour. It was a notable and well-deserved accomplishment for Ruhle, a rare talent and generous colleague who will undoubtedly thrive in her new perch. But the headlines about Ruhle’s promotion arguably obscured the more remarkable news: Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had succeeded in convincing Jeff Shell to give Morning Joe yet another hour of real estate on the network. Scarborough & Co. now own 25 hours per week, or more than 25 percent of the entire MSNBC weekday lineup. 

The expansion of the Morning Joe franchise—which starts with Way Too Early at 5 a.m. and will now run until 10 a.m.—reveals a lot about the current state of affairs at MSNBC. First, it's a reminder of the influence wielded by superagents Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro. In the fall, the duo negotiated the deal that gave Rachel Maddow $30 million-a-year with the option to step away from her primetime show and work less. They also negotiated on behalf of Scarborough to get the additional hour for Morning Joe. As for Ruhle's jump to The 11th Hour, a promotion that others at the network (most notably Ali Velshi) were hoping for—yes, Emanuel and Shapiro represent her, too. Indeed, there's a case to be made that WME wields more power inside MSNBC than any of the executives working under Shell. Or, as one high-ranking MSNBC source told me today, “it’s Ari Emanuel’s network now...”

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