Joy Reid is leaving MSNBC as the network cancels her evening show

By Canadian Press on February 24, 2025.

NEW YORK (AP) — Joy Reid is leaving MSNBC, the network’s new president announced in a memo to staff on Monday, marking an end to the prime time show hosted by the progressive political analyst and broadcast news anchor.

Reid’s namesake show, “The ReidOut,” has been a fixture of MSNBC’s evening programming since 2020. In the hourlong newscast, held on weeknights at 7 p.m. E.T., Reid conducts interviews with politicians and other newsmakers — diving into an extensive array of political issues and intersections between race, culture and social justice.

Reports about MSNBC cancelling “The ReidOut” emerged online over the weekend, sparking outrage from supporters of the show, who point to the impact it’s had on elevating historically marginalized voices in today’s media landscape. MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler later confirmed Reid’s departure on Monday afternoon in a memo to staff, viewed by The Associated Press.

“Joy Reid is leaving the network and we thank her for her countless contributions over the years,” Kutler wrote.

In the coming weeks, rotating anchors will host Reid’s hour, Kutler added. Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez — who currently serve as hosts of “The Weekend,” another MSNBC program — will later move to weekdays at 7 p.m. to host a new ensemble news program, per the staff memo.

Prior to Kutler’s memo, Reid also took to social media to thank those who she said had reached out to her with messages of support over the weekend.

“I just want to say thank you to everyone who has reached out with kindness and encouragement, both personally and in these social media streets,” Reid wrote in a message posted to BlueSky and Instagram just after midnight — adding that she was “so very proud” of “The ReidOut” team.

Late Sunday, Reid also joined a call streamed on YouTube with Win With Black Women — sharing that Monday would be her final show. She told the group that she had “been through every emotion” since learning the news, including anger and disappointment, but “where I’ve landed on today is just gratitude.”

“My show had value,” she said on the call, listing the range of topics her team tackled each day. “Whether it was the Black Lives Matter issues … (or) talking about Gaza and the fact that we as the American people have … a right to object to little babies being bombed … I am not sorry that I stood up for those things.”

Over the years, Reid has been recognized with numerous accolades for her work. Most recently, she won two NAACP Image Awards over the weekend — including for “The ReidOut” as an outstanding news series, as well as for outstanding literary work for her biography “Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America.”

The cancellation of “The ReidOut” isn’t the only programming change on the horizon for MSNBC. In Monday’s staff memo, Kutler also pointed to several other updates to both the weekday and weekend lineup — most of which are set to go into effect in late April.

They include moving Jen Psaki to the 9 p.m. primetime hour for Tuesdays through Fridays and ending Alex Wagner’s current nighttime spot. Wagner will stay with the network as a senior political analyst, per Monday’s memo. And Rachel Maddow’s namesake show will return to Mondays at 9 p.m. following the first 100 days of the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, as MSNBC works to consolidate broadcast locations to New York and Washington, D.C., the network is also planning to end operations in Miami — in a move that will impact shows like “José Díaz-Balart Reports” and “The Katie Phang Show.” Díaz-Balart will stay with NBC News as anchor of “Weekend Nightly News,” the staff memo notes, while Phang will remain with MSNBC as a legal correspondent.

“In the years ahead, we must continue to show up for our audiences in this critical moment while simultaneously best positioning ourselves for the future,” Kutler wrote Monday — adding she had hoped to share such changes with staff directly and “understand the frustration that you first learned about this over the weekend and not from me.”

Kutler, a former CNN executive who joined MSNBC in 2022, was officially MSNBC president on Feb. 12 — just weeks into serving under an interim capacity after former network head Rashida Jones announced that she would be stepping down last month.

The leadership and programming shakeup also arrives amid a corporate ownership transition. MSNBC is set to no longer have any corporate connection to NBC News once a spinoff formally takes effect later this year.

Also on Monday, NBC veteran Lester Holt announced that he would be stepping down as anchor of the network’s flagship “Nightly News” broadcast by early summer — to expand his role in “Dateline” programming.

Wyatte Grantham-philips, The Associated Press