Joy Reid’s staff had ‘tense’ meeting with MSNBC chiefs after learning her show was being axed in media: report
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MSNBC has canceled Joy Reid’s evening news show and held a “tense” meeting with her staff after the news was leaked to the press.
The final episode ofThe ReidOut will air this week, The New York Times reports. Her slot will be replaced by a show led by a trio of hosts: Democratic strategist Symone Sanders Townsend, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele and journalist Alicia Menendez. They currently host The Weekend, which airs on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Rebecca Kutler, the network’s newly-appointed leader, made the call amid larger plans to overhaul MSNBC’s programming, according to the Times.
Now, media journalist Oliver Darcy reports Reid’s staff found out they were losing their jobs in a tense and emotional 30-minute impromptu meeting Sunday morning. Staffers were reportedly frustrated they learned about the show shutting down from media reports, rather than directly from leadership.
Reid has hosted a 7 p.m. show on the network since 2020. She had been with the company since 2014.
The network has also removed Alex Wagner from her weekday evening spot, and Darcy reports Kutler held a “similar” meeting with the show’s staff. However, Wagner is expected to stay with MSNBC as a contributor.
Now, many are mourning Reid’s departure.
“I owe the television part of my career to Joy Reid, as do so many other Black voices y’all never would have heard of if not for her,” journalist Elie Mystal wrote on X. “And *that’s* why she’s gone. They can treat black folks as interchangeable, but everybody Black knows that Joy was indispensable.”
Outgoing Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison also thanked her for her time on the network.
“Grateful for Joy Reid & her willingness to always provide a forum for voices and candidates often ignored by mainstream media,” he wrote on X. “Can you name another show or host who brought together 5 Black candidates running for the US Senate?!”
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms similarly told The Daily Beast: “I am deeply saddened that Joy-Ann Reid, the only African American woman with her own show on MSNBC, will no longer be seen.”
But others — especially members of the GOP — are celebrating the end of her show.
Media personality Piers Morgan called her firing “long overdue,” while journalist Billy Binion accused of her pushing “the worst kind of journalism.”
Trump also railed against MSNBC this weekend, writing on Truth Social: “These people lie… they are a vehicle of the Democrat Party.”
MSNBC declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.
