Daniel Abrams (born May 20, 1966) is an American media entrepreneur, television host, legal commentator, and author. He is currently the host of the prime-time show Dan Abrams Live on NewsNation, On Patrol: Live on Reelz and The Dan Abrams Show: Where Politics Meets The Law on SiriusXM's P.O.T.U.S. channel. He is also the Chief Legal Analyst of ABC News.
Abrams was the host of Live PD on the A&E cable network and created and hosts Court Cam, a Law&Crime production on A&E. He was formerly an anchor of Nightline. Abrams also worked as the chief legal correspondent and analyst for NBC News and general manager of MSNBC, and doubled as an anchor for the same network. He began his professional career in 1994 as a reporter for Court TV, covering, among others, the O. J. Simpson murder trial.
Early life
Daniel Abrams was born in Manhattan, New York City; he is Jewish, the son of Efrat and well-known attorney Floyd Abrams, an expert on constitutional law. He is a 1984 graduate of Riverdale Country School. Abrams received his B.A. cum laude in political science from Duke University in 1988. While at Duke, he anchored newscasts on the student-run channel Cable 13 and was vice president of the student body. Abrams received a J.D. from Columbia Law School.
Career
Television and broadcasting
Early career
Abrams worked as a reporter for KTVX Channel 4 in Utah during the 1980s Court TV from May 1994 to June 1997, where he covered the O. J. Simpson case, the International War Crimes Tribunal from the Netherlands, and the assisted-suicide trials of Dr. Jack Kevorkian from Michigan.
MSNBC and NBC News
After leaving Court TV, Abrams was a general assignment correspondent for NBC News from 1997 to 1999 at which time he was named Chief Legal Correspondent. Abrams then began hosting his own show at MSNBC, and The Abrams Report began in 2001. Abrams hosted The Abrams Report until he accepted the lead managerial position at MSNBC. Abrams held the position of General Manager of MSNBC from June 12, 2006, until October 2007. Abrams left to concentrate on his program Live with Dan Abrams, which replaced Scarborough Country due to Joe Scarborough's move to mornings. This show would eventually be revamped and renamed Verdict with Dan Abrams, which aired until August 21, 2008. MSNBC announced on August 19, 2008, that Air America Radio host Rachel Maddow would take over that time slot beginning September 8, 2008. At that time, Abrams took on additional duties with NBC News including substituting as an anchor on the Today show.
ABC
In March 2011, Abrams left NBC to become the Chief Legal Analyst for ABC News and a substitute anchor on Good Morning America. ABC announced in June 2013 that Abrams would become the network's Chief Legal Affairs Anchor, as well as an anchor of Nightline. He stepped down from his full time role as Nightline anchor in December 2014 to focus on his expanding media businesses and returned to his freelance role as the network's Chief Legal Analyst. In 2020, The Poynter Report described Abrams as the "go-to analyst on legal affairs."
A&E
From October 2016 to June 2020, Abrams hosted the A&E show Live PD, which followed police officers live across the United States as they patrol their communities. Using dash-cam footage, handheld low-light-capable cameras, and fixed-camera rigs, Abrams analyzed each incident with analysts Tom Morris Jr. and Sean "Sticks" Larkin as the police work occurs. He was also co-host of Grace vs. Abrams, in which Abrams and legal commentator Nancy Grace debated high-profile crime cases. In 2019, Abrams signed on to produce and host Court Cam, a new show that takes viewers inside America's courtrooms. Live PD was canceled on June 10, 2020, in the wake of protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd and the destruction of the video footage of the killing of Javier Ambler.
NewsNation
On July 19, 2021, Nexstar announced that Abrams would join NewsNation to host a nightly prime-time show called Dan Abrams Live, which premiered on September 27, 2021.
Reelz
On June 8, 2022, the Wall Street Journal announced that Abrams would return as host and executive producer for On Patrol: Live, a new show on Reelz following the same format as A&E's cancelled Live PD. On Patrol: Live premiered on July, 22nd 2022.