MSNBC bumps Al Sharpton to Sunday morning

In the latest sign of MSNBC's reinvention, polarizing talk show host Al Sharpton is being moved from a prime five-day-a-week show to once-a-week.

Sharpton will give up his 6 p.m. hour on weeknights on September 4, and he'll take over the 8 a.m. Sunday hour a month later.

The move comes as MSNBC steers away from provocative progressive talk and emphasizes more straightforward news programming.

Sharpton is provocative, for sure. He is one of the country's foremost civil rights activists, and his reputation has been burnished by "PoliticsNation," his weeknight show that started in 2011.

But the show, like much of the rest of MSNBC, struggled to compete in the daily ratings race with Fox News and CNN.

As executives at MSNBC's parent company, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, have prepared a reboot of the cable news channel, they concluded that Sharpton's political commentary didn't fit.

He'll initially be replaced by an hour of news coverage called "MSNBC Live."

MSNBC did the same thing earlier this summer when it canceled its 3 p.m, 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. political talk shows. "MSNBC Live" is seen as a placeholder until new programs are installed.

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