Christopher John "Chris" Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews

Hardball with Chris Matthews

Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...

, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

. On weekends he hosts the syndicated NBC News

NBC News

NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...

–produced panel discussion program, The Chris Matthews Show

The Chris Matthews Show

The Chris Matthews Show is a half-hour weekend news and political roundtable program produced by NBC News. It is taped in Washington, D.C., and nationally syndicated by NBC Universal Television Distribution...

. Matthews makes frequent appearances on many NBC and MSNBC programs. On March 22, 2009, Matthews renewed the contract for Hardball with Chris Matthews

Hardball

Hardball or hard ball may refer to:in computers* Hardball, a computer game made for the Palm OS and similar to Breakout* Hardball! , a series of computer games about baseballin film...

through 2012.
Matthews was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, to Irish American

Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

 parents and is a Roman Catholic.