MSNBC has reportedly canceled longtime anchor Joy Reid’s show in what is evidently a major programming restructure at the liberal network.
Speaking to the New York Times, two people familiar with the reshuffling told the outlet that Reid’s 7pm show, The ReidOut, is being cancelled as part of a lineup shuffle being helmed by the network’s new president, Rebecca Kutler.
Reid’s final episode is scheduled for some time this upcoming week, according to the two people who spoke to the outlet. They added that MSNBC plans to replace Reid’s slot with a new show co-led by three anchors – Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele – who currently co-host The Weekend show.
Townsend is a Democratic strategist and ex-counsel to former vice-president Kamala Harris, who lost the race for the White House in November to Donald Trump. Menendez is a television commentator. And Steele is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland as well as chairperson of the Republican National Committee from 2009 to 2011.
The cancellation of a show led by one of the network’s most prominent hosts comes about a month after MSNBC’s former president, Rashida Jones, stepped down from the network to end a nearly four-year tenure. Kutler, who was then MSNBC’s senior vice-president for content strategy, replaced Jones.
Following Jones’s departure, Mark Lazarus, NBCUniversal Media Group chairman told the network’s employees, “We have a lot to do.”
In January, Chuck Todd, a prominent anchor and former host of the network’s Meet The Press, announced that he was leaving NBC News. The announcement followed Todd’s prominent role in pushing back against NBC’s decision to hire Ronna McDaniel, the former RNC chairperson, in March 2024.
The left-leaning network eventually removed McDaniel, who headed the RNC during Trump’s first presidential administration. The NBCUniversal News Group chair, Cesar Conde, told employees that he had listened to “the legitimate concerns” which came from across the network.
At the time of NBC’s decision to drop McDaniel, Reid told Rachel Maddow, another major MSNBC host, “I know I felt very strongly about it, I know you felt very strongly about it … and I just have to say, when somebody does the right thing, I feel like it should be acknowledged as publicly as we acknowledged our outrage … I know how I feel about it.
“I’m grateful to Cesar for actually making the right decision. I think it was the right decision.”
