• by Fern Siegel , October 21, 2020

NBCU’s streaming Peacock recently launched The Choice, a news commentary channel, available now in the Channels section of the streamer, to enhance political coverage.

Kicking off Choice’s political/election coverage are three commentators: Zerlina Maxwell, Sam Seder and Mehdi Hasan.

Tomorrow, Oct. 22, is the final presidential debate. Both The Choice and NBC News NOW will stream the debate from 9:00–10:30 p.m.

The Choice has slated Zerlina Maxwell and Mehdi Hasan to host a pre-debate show from 8:00–8:45 p.m. and provide post-debate commentary at 11:00 p.m.. Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, regular MSBNC analysts, will supply pre-debate commentary at 8:45 p.m. and host a post-debate special at 10:30 p.m. on the channel.

Choice shows "The Mehdi Hasan Show" and "Zerlina” debuted Oct. 5.

Previously, Hasan hosted the podcast "Deconstructed"at The Intercept. Maxwell, director of progressive media for the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, is now head of progressive programming for SiriusXM.

Other news channels on Peacock include NBC News Now, TODAY All Day and Sky News.

“News is a key differentiator for Peacock, and we’re excited to bring more original and popular news programming to the platform,” stated Jen Brown, senior vice president of topical programming and development for Peacock. The streamer will “focus on aggregating varied perspectives and diverse voices.”

The Choice’s regular weekly line-up includes: 5:00 p.m. "The Majority Report,” 6:00 p.m.  “Zerlina,” 7:00 p.m. “The Mehdi Hasan Show.” On Saturday, the channel replays “Wilmore” at 10 p.m. and “The Amber Ruffin Show” at 10:30 p.m.

Host Larry Wilmore was formerly with Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” Ruffin is a comic and the first Black woman to write for “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”