Sounds like MSNBC is having a full-blown meltdown over there.
The liberal news network is making major changes in an attempt to fix their failing ratings, announcing a couple of days ago that they would be canceling host Joy Reid’s 7pm primetime show The ReidOut.
Now, if you’re not sure why the show was canceled, Reid is the host who breathlessly declared on election night last year that Kamala Harris ran a “flawless” campaign…as it was becoming clear that she had lost to Donald Trump. Instead, Reid predictably blamed the loss on the country not being ready to accept a female president:
“Anyone who has experienced, or been in the United States for any period of time, and experienced this country’s history and knows it, can not have believed that it would be easy to elect a woman president, let alone a woman of color. Let’s just be clear.
And nothing that was true yesterday about how flawlessly this campaign was run is not true now. This really was an historic, flawlessly run campaign.
Queen Latifah never endorses anyone. She came out and endorsed her. She had every prominent celebrity voice, she had the Swifties, she had the Beyhive. You could not have run a better campaign in that short period of time, and I think that’s still true.”
What are we going to do without this expert analysis?
Of course MSNBC had good reason to make a change to their primetime lineup. In January, the network had an average of 506,000 viewers per day, which was down 34% from the same time last year. And Fox News has 9 of the top 10 shows in total viewers, with only MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow even cracking the top 10 in 9th place.
The network was no doubt hoping to capitalize on Trump’s second term by getting the anti-Trump crowd to tune in to watch them bash the president and sound alarms over everything he does, but so far it just hasn’t happened. I guess people are tired of the hysteria and constant fear-mongering that MSNBC serves up.
But instead of making a shift away, the network has decided to double down on their strategy with a new lineup of anti-Trump panelists including Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele, and Symone Sanders Townsend to replace Reid’s show.
Well apparently the rest of the “talent” over at MSNBC isn’t exactly happy about the network’s decision to part ways with Reid, who announced yesterday that she would not be staying at MSNBC after her final show last night. And last night, Rachel Maddow used her opening monologue to blast her own network, implying that racism played a part in Reid’s ouster:
“I am 51 years old. I have been gainfully employed since I was 12. And I have had so many different kinds of jobs, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But in all of the jobs I have had, in all of the years I have been alive, there is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid…
Personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door. It is not my call, and I understand that, but that’s what I think.
I will tell you it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two, count ’em two, non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows…
That feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.”
Calling your own network racist…ON your own network? That’s a bold move.
But even more bold is calling your network racist for canceling a show hosted by a black woman…and replacing it with a shot hosted by two black panelists. Both Michael Steele and Symone Sanders Townsend are black, something that apparently doesn’t matter to Maddow.
Then again, when have facts ever mattered to MSNBC?
NO JOY: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in the wake of Joy Reid's show being cancelled: "I think it is a bad mistake…"
She then accuses MSNBC bosses of being racist:
It’s "unnerving" to see the network's decision to cancel shows hosted by nonwhite anchors: "That feels indefensible." pic.twitter.com/qBXhsYwmkX
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) February 25, 2025
