MSNBC makes it official: Joy Reid loses show and Jen Psaki moves into new primetime slot amid sweeping lineup change
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Following a number of bombshell reports that host Joy Reid was not only losing her show but was leaving the network, MSNBC made it official on Monday when it announced a sweeping lineup overhaul that saw Reid and fellow weeknight host Alex Wagner having their programs canceled.
Additionally, the liberal cable news network expanded the role of former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who will now anchor the pivotal 9 p.m. ET hour from Tuesday to Friday, replacing Wagner once star Rachel Maddow returns to only hosting on Monday nights.
In her first significant move since succeeding Rashida Jones as the network’s president, Rebecca Kutler also revealed that several other programs would be expanded, canceled or retooled as MSNBC looks to separate itself from NBC News following Comcast’s decision to spin off NBC Universal’s cable assets into the new company SpinCo.
In a memo sent to MSNBC staff on Monday, Kutler announced that Reid – who has been with the network for over a decade – would indeed be leaving MSNBC, and her 7 p.m. show has come to an end. In The Reidout’s place, the three current hosts of The Weekend – Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez – will take over that time slot and air a two-hour broadcast on Monday nights.
Prior to the trio making their move to weeknights in April, a rotating slate of anchors will host in Reid’s old time slot. “Joy Reid is leaving the network and we thank her for her countless contributions over the years,” Kutler wrote. “Her work has been recognized with several esteemed honors, including most recently, the 2025 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding News Series.”
Wagner, who was bumped from her Tuesday-Friday 9 p.m. slot after Maddow returned to five nights a week after Donald Trump’s inauguration, will now transition to a senior political analyst role. Psaki will now move her show, which aired on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, to Wagner’s former hour.
With The Weekend’s current hosts moving to weeknights, the network is shifting other personalities to the show and expanding its hours. Moving forward, The Weekend will air on Saturday and Sunday mornings and evenings. Jonathan Capehart will lead the morning edition, while Ayman Mohyeldin will co-anchor the evening edition. Both hosts’ current weekend solo shows will be canceled.
Network sources, meanwhile, added that MSNBC is in discussions with Politico’s Eugene Daniels and New York University professor Melissa Murray to join the network as hosts.
Kutler also revealed that the network is sunsetting its production operations in Miami, which means Katie Phhang’s weekend show and Jose Diaz-Balart’s weekday news broadcast will be discontinued. Diaz-Balart will continue to anchor his NBC News Weekend Nightly News broadcast, while Phang will remain with MSNBC as a legal correspondent.
On the dayside front, the network noted that “‘Ana Cabrera Reports’ will expand to 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; ‘Chris Jansing Reports’ will shift to 12 to 2 p.m., and ‘Katy Tur Reports’ will add another hour to anchor from 2 to 4 p.m. Ali Velshi’s weekend show will also expand from its current two-hour format to three hours.
“In the coming months, I will have more news to share on expanding our Washington operation, including establishing a bureau, and building a team of domestic and international correspondents,” Kutler noted.
Following the election, MSNBC saw its ratings sliced in half as liberal viewers appeared to tune out cable news following Donald Trump’s victory. However, since his inauguration, many of those eyeballs have returned. According to Nielsen, the network’s primetime viewership has surged 77 percent since Inauguration Day compared to the previous month, and total day ratings have climbed by 34 percent.
