MSNBC Cancels Joy Reid’s Show in Major Shake-Up
Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. program will be replaced by a panel show co-hosted by Symone Sanders Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele.
The final episode of Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. show, “The ReidOut,” is planned for sometime this week, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The show, which features in-depth interviews with politicians and other newsmakers, has been a fixture of MSNBC’s lineup for the past five years.
MSNBC is planning to replace Ms. Reid’s program with a show led by a trio of anchors: Symone Sanders Townsend, a political commentator and former Democratic strategist; Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Alicia Menendez, the TV journalist, the people said. They currently co-host “The Weekend,” which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings.
An MSNBC spokesman, Richard Hudock, declined to comment. Ms. Reid did not respond to calls seeking comment.
The programming shake-up is the first major change made by Ms. Kutler, who was appointed president this month. Ms. Kutler has been drawing up a new programming lineup to jump-start the network’s ratings, which have outperformed rival CNN but lagged behind the longtime ratings leader, Fox News.
Other major changes are expected at MSNBC. In January, Rachel Maddow, the network’s best-known anchor, returned to hosting her 9 p.m. show five days a week during the first 100 days of the Trump administration after having scaled back to only Mondays. At the time, the network said that Alex Wagner, who had hosted the 9 p.m. show four days a week, would return at the end of April.
That is no longer the case. Instead, MSNBC is planning to appoint a new anchor to fill Ms. Wagner’s spot, the two people said. A likely candidate for that hour is Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary in the Biden administration, who hosts shows on Sunday at noon and 8 p.m. on Mondays, the people said, though adding that this decision hadn’t been finalized.
Ms. Wagner, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is expected to remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent.
Puck and Variety earlier reported on some aspects of MSNBC’s planned reorganization.
Ms. Reid has long been one of MSNBC’s most prominent anchors. She was named anchor of MSNBC’s 7 p.m. hour in 2020 after serving as the host of “AM Joy,” a weekend talk show on the network, since 2016. Her appointment to the evening news slot was one of the first major programming decisions made by Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, which encompassed NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo.
MSNBC is being separated from that group, the result of a corporate spinoff planned by the cable giant Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company. MSNBC will join most of Comcast’s other cable channels, including CNBC and USA Network, in a new company led by the veteran NBCUniversal executive Mark Lazarus. Though Ms. Kutler briefed Mr. Lazarus on the changes, he was not involved in the details of the programming overhaul, one of the people said.
MSNBC is also looking beyond the network’s existing roster of anchors to fill out its programming lineup. MSNBC is considering on-air host positions for Eugene Daniels, a co-author of Politico’s influential Playbook newsletter, and Melissa Murray, a professor at the New York University School of Law, roles that would supplement their current jobs, said the other person familiar with the changes.
