Are MSNBC viewers up for a weekend morning show about politics?

MSNBC's new, live, two-hour weekend morning politics show, "Up with Chris Hayes," makes it debut at 7 a.m. ET on Saturday, with a second show at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, will join Hayes live in the New York studio during the premiere broadcast.

"I'm super stoked," Hayes said when the show was announced last month. "It's like planting a flag in virgin soil. I don't think there is anything else on cable news that looks like this."

Hayes, the bespectacled editor-at-large of The Nation and a frequent primetime guest host for Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and (before his exit) Keith Olbermann, describes the new show as "Morning Joe" meets "Rachel Maddow"; "what the Week in Review or Times Magazine or The Week is to Twitter and blogs."

Specifically, Hayes writes:

When I was living in Washington, my wife and I would try to get together with our closest friends once a week for what we somewhat jokingly called "family dinner." Sometimes we'd go to a restaurant, sometimes it would be at someone's house and occasionally we'd meet for brunch. Those get togethers were my favorite part of living in DC. We were lucky enough to have an incredible group of friends: warm, funny, extremely smart and doing fascinating work. Two were speech writers for a member of the administration, another travelled the world working on improving conditions in refugee camps, another was Egyptian who had family living through the revolution. At those meals we would collectively talk, think and chew through all the news had happened since we'd last gotten together: Boehner's play on the government shut-down, the President's strategy in dealing with the Senate's obstruction, and oh did you see that crazy You Tube video with the little kid singing Lady Gaga?

What I'm trying to do with 'Up' is recreate the experience of those dinners, fueled by caffeine rather than wine. You can expect on 'Up' smart, informed people talking through the onrush of news. Collectively we're going to try to make sense of what the heck is going on, and bring some clarity to you, the viewers.

That sounds good, in theory. Will it work?

"The concept can work," Alex Weprin, the editor of TVNewser.com, told The Cutline. "But expectations need to be tempered. Any show on Saturday morning will have fewer viewers than a show during the week or later on Sunday morning.

"It also needs to be different," Weprin added. "Otherwise people will just wait until Sunday morning or get their news online."

Hayes told New York magazine's Daily Intel that he doesn't typically watch cable news shows when they air, catching up them online instead. ("Where I'm sitting, it's kind of great [that people watch on the Web.] There are a lot of people who aren't up on Saturday and Sunday morning.")

Making the jump from print journalist to full-time TV host is, historically, a tricky one—just ask Tucker Carlson.

"I don't see why he can't," Weprin said of Hayes. "Rachel Maddow had little TV experience before joining MSNBC, and she has become the network's biggest star. The challenge is making sure that Hayes is up to the challenge, he needs to prove that he can be a host, and having him hone his skills early Saturday mornings is an efficient way to do that, and potentially groom him for a larger role down the line."

(Reached via email by The Cutline, Carlson declined to comment on Hayes' show.)

"In some respects, it is more valuable as a proving ground, a sort of AAA to the weekday lineup's major leagues," Weprin added.

Even if the show fails, it doesn't sound like the 32-year-old Hayes—who moved from Washington to Brooklyn for the gig—will be returning to D.C. anytime soon.

Hayes told New York magazine last month, "I got out of Washington what I needed to get out of Washington in four years."