UpFront
UpFront is a current affairs discussion, debate and analysis programme on Al Jazeera English. The show premiered on 4 September 2015 shortly after Al Jazeera moved into their new Washington D.C. hub. The show has a politics focus although other subjects are broached such as religion, economics, development and government activities. The show is weekly and premieres new episodes on Fridays.[1]
| UpFront | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Presented by | Marc Lamont Hill |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Production location | Washington D.C. |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | Al Jazeera English |
| Original release | September 2015 |
The programme is centred around current affairs with each episode dedicated to one or two topics. Typically each episode contains Hasan doing an interview with a guest on a subject which is followed by a debate on the subject.
The premiere episode featured an interview with Edward Snowden about the National Security Agency leaks. Other notable guests have included the foreign minister of Qatar about Qatar's role in Syria, Saudi Arabia foreign minister Abdallah al-Mouallimi about why democracy is good for Syria but not Saudi Arabia,[2] Noam Chomsky, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, various UN officials and various countries members of parliament. The show was originally hosted by Mehdi Hasan from its debut until October 2020 when Hasan departed to host a show on Peacock. He was temporarily replaced as host by Richelle Carey, then by Marc Lamont Hill on a permanent basis in 2021.
References
- "Coming soon: UpFront, hosted by Mehdi Hasan". yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-23. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- Robinson, Sydney (25 March 2016). "U.N. Saudi Ambassador Asked Why Democracy is Good For Syria But Not For Saudi Arabia". trofire.com. Retrieved 23 January 2017.