MSNBC host Rachel Maddow criticized her network on Monday during her show following the firing of host Joy Reid and the demotion of fill-in host Alex Wagner.
Her criticism comes on the heels of the network revealing earlier in the week that Reid’s and Wagner’s shows would be canceled as part of a broader effort to revamp its programming, with weekend shows hosted by Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, and Ayman Mohyeldin also being scrapped.
Maddow, who appeared on Reid’s final show earlier that day, also confirmed that former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki would take over Wagner’s timeslot.
“She is leaving the network altogether and that is very, very, very hard to take. I am 51 years old,” Maddow said. “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,” Maddow said of her far-left friend.
“I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her,” Maddow continued. “I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC, and 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.”
Comcast is spinning off MSNBC, CNBC, USA, E!, Oxygen, SyFy, and other news and entertainment channels following a significant decline in MSNBC’s ratings, which reportedly dropped by over 50% after Kamala Harris’s defeat in the 2024 election, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal in November.
“I will tell you. It is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two — count them — two non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend,” Maddow said. “And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible and I do not defend it.”
Reid had a history of racially inflammatory comments directed at white conservatives and Trump supporters on her show. On Nov. 5, she criticized “white women” for not supporting Harris.
“In the end, if they didn’t make their numbers and essentially exceed the numbers that Joe Biden had in the suburbs, I think we have to be blunt about why. Black voters came through for Kamala Harris, white women voters did not,” Reid said at the time.
Reid also made controversial remarks during the 2024 campaign, including calling Mark Kelly a “mayonnaise sandwich on Wonder Bread,” claiming that Russia targeted WNBA player Brittney Griner for being black and queer, laughing when a guest launched a racial tirade against Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and asserting that a desire to have children was akin to white supremacy.
Reid also dismissed the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, labeling it as a platform for pushing media-driven conspiracies, despite the FBI’s surveillance of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
MSNBC hosts and guests frequently amplified the claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with the Russian government to undermine Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency. They often hosted then-Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who was outspoken about the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The Steele Dossier, which fueled these collusion allegations, was later discredited.
Reid broke down during a monologue she posted to her social media earlier this week, crying over her firing.
“My show had value, and—that what I was doing had value. It had value. And in the end—I’m sorry—I try not to cry on TV. This is kind of like me on TV, so I apologize. And that it kind of… and that it mattered,” Reid sobbed.