Rachel Maddow torched new MSNBC president on ‘indefensible’ moves
MSNBC’s $25 million liberal icon Rachel Maddow torched new president Rebecca Kutler and the network brass Monday after they canceled Joy Reid’s show. The anchor appeared on the last episode of The ReidOut earlier in the evening, where she declared herself ‘bereft’ that Reid had been fired but didn’t initially criticize the network. When Maddow – who was rumored to have taken a pay cut when signing her new contract at MSNBC – took to the airwaves later on, it was no-holds barred, with Maddow slamming the network for firing Reid and a slew of other ‘non-white’ anchors.

‘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,’ Maddow said. She added: ‘I will tell you. It is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two – count them – two nonwhite hosts in primetime, both of our nonwhite hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend. And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.’

Phang (pictured left), Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin have also been given the boot from their current timeslots by ruthless new boss Kutler. Maddow did praise whomever would replace Reid, which is reported to be Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders Townsend and Michael Steele in the interim. ‘Everybody who’s going to be in anchor chairs from here on out are great colleagues and great at what they do. And you are not going to be disappointed in who’s on our air and what you’re going to be seeing,’ she said. Still, she had more unkind words for the network for how they were treating Reid’s staffers.

‘Dozens of producers and staffers, including some who are among the most experienced and most talented and most specialist producers in the building are facing being laid off,’ she said. ‘They’re being invited to reapply for new jobs.’ Maddow called that unprecedented in the history of the network and added that ‘it’s not the right way to treat people. And it’s inefficient and it’s unnecessary, and it kind of drops the bottom out of whether or not people feel like this is a good place to work.’ DailyMail.com has reached out to MSNBC for comment.

Reid wept as she broke her silence Sunday after being fired from the network on a podcast. She clarified that she was ‘not sorry’ despite the cancellation of The Reid Out as MSNBC looks to restructure its programming. Trump blasted the network as losers, calling MSNBC head Brian Roberts a ‘Lowlife Chairman’ while branding Reid a ‘mentally obnoxious racist.’ Reid was more composed on her final broadcast Monday but made sure to equate Trumpism with fascism before gathering what she called her ‘superfriends’ of fellow anchors from the struggling network. She held a summit with Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Nicole Wallace, all of whom praised Reid and expressed how sad they were that the show was ending but refused to criticize their bosses. ‘I love you Joy and I am bereft that the ReidOut is ending. I can’t get beyond that,’ the network’s star said from a Zoom camera.

Reid returned the praise and perhaps suggested Maddow had fought for her to stay with the network’s lineup. ‘No one fights harder for us in this company than Rachel Maddow,’ she said. Nicole Wallace came the closest to dig at MSNBC when she said that she felt ‘despair’ at Reid’s cancelation and that ‘despair is the autocrat’s tool.’ ‘I love you, the happiest times I’ve had ever being on television have been sitting next to the two of you and that I thought things like that on TV couldn’t be real but the friendships that have sustained me have been with both of you. It feels like losing a limb,’ she added.

O’Donnell added a simple message: ‘Thank you Joy, for everything you’ve taught us. I have more to learn from you, I plan on haunting you for the rest of your days,’ quipped Reid, who then joked about her fascination with ghosts. The theme of the entire show was to show her viewers how to ‘fight back, never stop resisting’ in her show’s absence. ‘Fascism isn’t just coming, it’s already here,’ Reid said. ‘You don’t always win every battle but the whole thing is about resisting.’

She spent the show criticizing Elon Musk’s infamous DOGE email and the cuts made to the civil service. ‘Tonight, on our final Reid Out, we are going to talk about what people are actually doing to resist this.’ Reid ended her show by thanking her staff and employees, saying: ‘The ReidOut worked because everyone put their whole heart into it.’ The entire staff was seen on camera, waiving goodbye as Reid finished the show and handed off to Jen Psaki. ‘I wanna thank [Joy] because she’s done amazing work, she tells stories no one tells. But also for the person that she is,’ added Psaki, a former White House Press Secretary who has since attached on to the network.

The Reid Out was canceled amid tanking ratings – a decision leaked early Sunday and confirmed by her bosses just hours later. Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin have also reportedly been given the boot from their current timeslots, the New York Post reported. Fellow NBCU asset NBC News further confirmed Monday that Lester Holt was also leaving his iconic Nightly News gig . Sunday’s meeting quickly grew ‘tense and emotional’, according to Status News, after The Reid Out was dumped because of poor ratings. During the meeting, some of the angry employees demanded answers about why the show was cancelled and what it meant for their futures at MSNBC.

Kutler insisted Donald Trump was not a factor in the decision and the network’s changes were made based on ‘data analysis and programming strategy’ that she believes will ‘best position MNSBC for the year ahead.’ She said the show’s cancellation was part of a ‘broader slate of programming changes that will be laid out’ on Monday. The show’s staffers reportedly expressed ‘frustration and disbelief’ that they learned of the show’s fate through media reports and not the network’s leadership. Kutler confirmed the show’s staff has been terminated but will be paid until April and receive severance. Reid is among MSNBC’s highest profile faces and is known for her hard left takes on social and political issues. Amid a looming landscape of languishing cable and legacy news stations, MSNBC had their lowest-rated January in history in the highly sought 25-54 demographic. The statistic holds importance to advertisers due to the group’s spending power and the fact that it pertains to both daytime and primetime. During the hours of 8-11 p.m. ET, MSNBC barely managed an audience of 734,000, with CNN securing just 522,000.

This all occurred during a hectic news cycle that featured coverage of Justin Trudeau’s resignation, Trump’s inauguration and the controversy surrounding the president’s parade of appointments and pardons. Talking heads ranging from Jake Tapper to Joy Reid failed to stop the bleeding – as did a move from MSNBC that brought back Rachel Maddow to TV sets five times a week, at least for the first 100 days of the new administration. MSNBC lagged to just 45,000 viewers during the day and just 63,000 during the peak hours of night – with the Maddow experiment seemingly failing.

In terms of percentages, though, the figures were even more alarming; MSNBC essentially lost nearly half of its 25-54 audience since this time last year, continuing a 65 percent slide seen since the election. In primetime, the network’s numbers are down 41 percent from 2024. When it came to programming delivered during the day, the percentage dip was the same. Given the timing and recent events surrounding, the new Nielsen numbers appear to show that relationship continuing in spades, with Fox seemingly set to widen that gap even more.