MSNBC Parts Ways with Top Host as Ratings Decline Sparks Network Changes

MSNBC liberal mainstay Joy Reid’s show has been canceled as part of a major shake-up under the network’s new president, Rebecca Kutler, according to a report.

A new panel show with co-hosts Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele, and Symone Sanders Townsend will take the place of Reid’s 7 p.m. program, which has been recognized for its scathing criticism of Trump for a long time. According to The New York Times, which cited network insiders at the time, the program will be replaced.

According to the story, the final edition of The ReidOut is scheduled to air this week, which will mark the end of its five-year tenure as a cornerstone of MSNBC’s primetime program. The ReidOut has been there for five years.

In addition, Alex Wagner, who has hosted the 9 p.m. weekday slot (with the exception of Monday evenings, which Rachel Maddow has handled), is anticipated to be designated a contributor, according to three sources who are familiar with ongoing conversations, as reported by Variety.

Wagner, who has been reporting from all around the United States for the first one hundred days of Trump’s new presidency while Maddow anchors the 9 p.m. hour, is not likely to return to her role as a weeknight host, according to the sources.

According to the New York Post, the adjustments are the first big revamp that the new president of MSNBC has implemented since taking control of the leftist network earlier this month.

Reid, who is widely known for his criticism of Trump in the mainstream media, has been an anchor at the network for a considerable amount of time. Since 2016, she has been the host of the weekend chat show “AM Joy,” and in 2020, she was promoted to the position of anchor for the 7 p.m. slot.

In the past few months, she has made a number of harsh and viral rants, including one in which she told people who support Trump to “make your own dinner” on Thanksgiving, stating that they should “suffer the consequences of their votes.”

In an effort to revitalize MSNBC, which has persistently fallen behind Fox News in terms of ratings, Kutler is proposing significant changes at the network.

According to a statistic that was published by Nielsen Media Research in December, Reid has lost over half of her audience since Donald Trump was elected president. Additionally, MSNBC had a shocking 53% reduction in primetime viewing after the results of the election on November 5.

During the same month, it was claimed that MSNBC made a big offer to several of its most prominent hosts, such as Joy Reid and Stephanie Ruhle, to reduce their salaries significantly if they desired to continue working in their positions.

MSNBC is facing unique obstacles as it navigates a Trump White House and prepares for its planned spinoff into a new publicly traded company with other NBCU cable networks, according to The Post. Kutler, a former senior executive at CNN, has made it plain that MSNBC faces these challenges.

“Our jobs are hard on a normal day, and these are not normal times,” Kutler told MSNBC staff on her first day after her new role was disclosed by Mark Lazarus, the NBCU executive who is leading the spin-off, according to The Post. Kutler’s new post was announced by Lazarus.

In a piece that was published one month ago, The Ankler, which is a publication that is produced by Lachlan Cartwright, a media writer, made reference to the wage cuts that were made to top MSNBC talent.

Cartwright went on to say that the situation is “bleak” for all of the cable news networks, with the noteworthy exception of Fox News:

For the sake of this article, I had interviews with twenty network journalists and executives. The predominant sentiment that I gleaned from these conversations was that they are worn out and ready for the year 2024 to be done, even though they are afraid of what the following year would bring. A cable network producer who had been with the company for a long time told me, “It’s pretty bleak.” “The strong alcohol has passed its point of no return.”

In the meantime, Rachel Maddow, another host on MSNBC, has experienced a considerable decrease in her audience as a result of the election of Donald Trump on Election Day, according to the most recent data.

“The Rachel Maddow Show” has had a significant drop in viewership in 2024, with an average of only 1.4 million viewers. This decline can be attributed to the landslide victory that Trump achieved over Vice President Kamala Harris.

The reduction was found by analysts by comparing the show’s performance after November 6 to its average viewership from January 1, 2024, all the way through Election Day.

In spite of the significant income she received, Rachel Maddow decided to lower the frequency of her broadcast to once per week in 2022 so that she may “pursue other projects.” In order to maintain her position as a significant character at MSNBC, she recently accepted a new deal.

There has been an even more significant drop in the number of persons aged 25 to 54 who are watching the network’s top star. Since the election, she has lost 56% of her following in this crucial cohort, and she now averages just 103,000 viewers. This is a significant setback given the significance of this age group to advertisers, according to OAN.