‘Morning Joe’ celebrates 10 years of coffee-hour talk on MSNBC

Move to Manhattan

On October 22, 2007, “Morning Joe,” along with many other MSNBC programs, moved into the renovated Studio 3A in Rockefeller Center as part of NBC’s efforts to combine its newsgathering operations under one roof. 

Originally, “Morning Joe” used the set’s main anchor desk against the newsroom background, but the show was set to go through several changes over the years.

Set Design

MSNBC Studio 3A (2007-2016)

View a gallery of this project…

At 30 Rock, the show also made use of an “in-the-round” style desk placed in front of one of the studio’s rear projection screens, which has since been removed.

Modernized version of Joe and Mika’s windowed-background. All images courtesy of NBC.

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During much of this time, Scarborough and Brzezinski, who had become a permanent co-host after upgrading her role from reading headlines, sat in front of a projected background with a faux window and fluttering American flags behind Scarborough and a blue background behind Brzezinski.

The period also saw a series of anchor desk configurations used, most of which were designed to facilitate discussion between in-studio guests and analysts. 

Brewed by

According to MSNBC executives, the Starbucks cups that began appearing on the anchor desk was originally just part of the anchors’ own morning coffee habit, but the coffee company took noticed and entered into an agreement with MSNBC to have the show officially labeled as “Brewed by Starbucks” in the open from 2009 to 2013.

Starbucks will continue brewing ‘Morning Joe’

The deal also included a Starbucks-branded green room near Studio 3A as well as cobranded packs of coffee available in stores.