Latest news with #TheReidOut
Miami Herald
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
‘There was no warning': Joy Reid is speaking out about how she was fired from MSNBC
Surprised that Joy Reid was pulled off the air back in February? So was she. The former MSNBC anchor is speaking out about how she found out that her show 'The ReidOut' was, poof, gone. During a new interview on 'The Breakfast Club' with Charlemagne tha God, Jess Hilarious and guest host Lauren Larosa, Reid reveals that her bosses reassured that her numbers were adequate just two weeks before the ax came down. 'They were like, 'You guys lost less than your competitors, and you're actually doing fine,'' the ex host said, adding, 'The ratings have not gotten better since I left. So it wasn't numbers.' Reid, a former Miami Herald columnist, didn't initially find out that she no longer had the gig from network honchos, but from a news article. The Feb. 22 Puck News 'scoop' rumored her primetime show was 'vulnerable.' Early the next morning, management texted her that they needed to talk to her at noon. Hours later, she was unemployed. 'I was fired immediately, there was no warning,' said the Emmy nominee. 'They said, 'Oh, like, we just want to make some changes.'' Among the other talent let go in the MSNBC bloodbath: Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin. Reid said she believes discussing 'uncomfortable' topics like Gaza and Donald Trump (because he is 'suing everybody') may have contributed to the decision to let her go. 'Joy Reid is leaving the network and we thank her for her countless contributions over the years,' MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler wrote to staff upon the cancellation of 'The ReidOut,' adding that the nightly program had recently received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding News Series. Soon after the pundit's firing went viral, the mother of three called in to 'Win With Black Women' podcast. 'I've been through every emotion from, you know, anger, rage, disappointment ... guilt, that I let my team lose their jobs,' Reid said, tearing up. 'But in the end, where I really land, and where I've landed on today is just gratitude. Not just because people would take the time to get on a call like this or to take care of me. But also that my show had value.'
Daily Mail
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Joy Reid makes humiliating admission about her firing from MSNBC
Joy Reid has revealed that the only heads up she got that she was being fired from MSNBC was a news article published days before she was axed. Reid made the startling admission during a Tuesday appearance on The Breakfast Club radio show, where she also talked about how disillusioned she is with the Democratic party. Reid claimed that her shock firing had nothing to do with ratings and speculated her outspoken views on Donald Trump and the situation in Gaza may have played a role. She explained that executives reassured her two weeks before her firing that her numbers were acceptable. 'They were like, "You guys lost less than your competitors, and you're actually doing fine,"' Reid said. 'So ratings were fine. We were doing fine. And you know, the ratings have not gotten better since I left.' Instead, Reid speculated that a February 22 story in Puck News was what sealed the fate of The Reid Out, the show she had been hosting since July 2020. 'We had seen that there was this Puck story that Friday,' she said. 'My executive producer called me and said, "Look, all of our producers are freaking out over this Puck story, so you should see it."' The story, written by Dylan Byers, claimed that Reid's show was, 'vulnerable in light of recent ratings struggles'. 'Then I get a text message early the next morning [on Saturday] saying, "Can you talk at noon?" And I was fired immediately. There was no warning. So, I asked, "Well, what's the issue?"' Reid said. She added that she was told management wanted to, 'make some changes', claiming that was all the specificity she was given at the time. A representative for Puck declined to comment on the outlet's reporting on Reid's firing. Reid went on to say that 'two topics' she frequently talked about on her show made MSNBC higher-ups uncomfortable. One of them was President Donald Trump, she said, largely because he has sued multiple media outlets for negative coverage of him. 'He's literally threatening people to the point where '60 Minutes' is shook, where ABC News is shook. He's verbally threatened Comcast by name, named [Comcast CEO] Brian Roberts by name, and all of these are businesses that if want to do business they need the FCC's approval,' Reid said. MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler has previously said that Reid's coverage of Trump was not a factor in her being fired. The other topic she thought made her toxic to management was her discussing Gaza, a small strip of land that Israel has been bombing since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. 'You just can't get away from the fact that talking about Gaza in a way that humanizes Palestinians is not the usual way that cable news operates, or that any news in this country operates for whatever reason, that topic makes people uncomfortable,' Reid said. Reid first addressed what happened a day after her firing on February 24, with a tearful appearance on the Win With Black Women podcast. 'I've been through every emotion... anger, rage, disappointment, hurt... guilt. You know, [ a feeling] that I let my team lose their jobs,' she said at the time. 'But in the end, where I really land... is just gratitude. Just pure gratitude and gratitude. Not just because people would take the time to get on a call like this or to take care of me. But also that my show had value.' Reid broke down as she explained that she's not sorry for having gone, 'hard on so many' progressive issues like Black Lives Matter or immigrant rights on her primetime slot. 'Whether it's talking about any of these issues and, yes, whether it's talking about Gaza and the fact that we as the American people have a right to object, to have a right to object to little babies being bombed,' Reid went on. 'And and where I come down on that is I'm not sorry. I am not sorry that I stood up for those those things because those things are of God.' Reid was fired in a brutal round of cuts at the network which also included anchors Jonathan Capehart, Katie Phang, and Ayman Mohyeldin. She has since launched her own podcast, The Joy Reid Show which debuted on June 9 and places her in direct competition with her former employer. Daily Mail approached MSNBC for comment.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Joy Reid: How MSNBC Tried to Silence Me Before Firing
MSNBC tried to stop Joy Reid from expressing herself on social media before ultimately firing her from its primetime lineup. Her MSNBC bosses were 'horrified' by the way she used social media platforms like Twitter, she told Katie Couric on her new podcast Monday. 'And anytime I would tweet anything, I would get calls—I would get, 'Please get off Twitter, we hate it.'' 'They just don't like that it pulls their talent and their reporters out of their control because now you're not running what you're tweeting through Standards and Practices,' Reid continued. 'It's giving your personality directly to the audience, which they don't like because it's no longer managed and curated by them.' Reid is gearing up to launch her YouTube show and podcast 'The Joy Reid Show' on June 9, but she got candid about her time at MSNBC a week in advance during a preview conversation with Couric, which she also uploaded to YouTube after hosting the livestream on her website. Her comments come after MSNBC canceled Reid's primetime show The ReidOut without explanation in February, as part of a network shakeup following Donald Trump's election win that resulted in the exodus of several of the network's non-white anchors. Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann characterized the moves as 'an MSNBC purge so brutally racist it makes you think it was done by [Elon] Musk.' Reid opened up about The ReidOut's end when Couric asked her what 'really happened' on Monday. 'I've been asked this so many times,' she told Couric. 'And people think that I'm just saying it to B.S., but I'm being honest with you—I don't know.' Just before she found out the news, Reid said, 'We were emailing back and forth with the PR department, praising our win for the NAACP Image Award.' 'It wasn't ratings' that got the show canceled, Reid went on, 'because we had just had a ratings meeting a couple of weeks before that talking about the fact that our show… other than Rachel Maddow, we were down the least' after Trump's election win. The Daily Beast reported in March that Reid's ratings were actually increasing when she was let go. 'We were just told that we were doing… that we were holding on pretty well,' she continued. 'And then, you know, it's not like the ratings have gotten better since I've been gone.' Reid also said the way she was told that her show was canceled felt 'scripted' and 'just very perfunctory.' 'I wasn't told 'The ratings were terrible,' 'It's something you did,' 'You tweeted a terrible thing,'' she said, adding that she was already being 'extra careful' online at the time, since 'there was a real anxiety about social media.' Reid she doesn't necessarily think her show was canceled because of her outspoken criticism of Trump, as many of her fans have speculated—but she said there's one reason she's not completely ruling it out. 'I'm a Black woman doing the thing. You know what I mean? And so I'm not different' from MSNBC hosts and Trump critics Rachel Maddow or Nicole Wallace, but 'I think that there's a difference for Trump in hearing the kinds of criticisms, specifically, out of a Black woman. It bothers him in a way it doesn't bother him like anything else.' 'There's a fear of him,' she also said, 'We're seeing it everywhere.'
Sky News AU
04-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
MSNBC's Jen Psaki sees 47 per cent dip in ratings last month compared to Alex Wagner, Rachel Maddow: Nielsen
The Psaki bomb has turned into a major Psaki dud for left-leaning MSNBC. The embattled cable news network — which is expected to be spun off by parent company Comcast later this year — has seen ratings plunge nearly 50% in the pivotal 9 p.m. slot since Jen Psaki took over full-time hosting duties from Rachel Maddow last month. The 46-year-old anchor, who made a name for herself with her quick-witted 'Psaki bombs' while serving as former President Joe Biden's press secretary — but has since insisted she never saw signs of his mental decline — has drawn an average of 971,000 viewers since 'The Briefing with Jen Psaki' debuted on May 6 through May 28, according to the latest Nielsen ratings. That's a staggering 47% falloff from the eyeballs attracted by Maddow and Alex Wagner in the timeslot. The drop-off is even more pronounced in the critical 25–54 age demographic prized by advertisers, where she drew just 78,000 viewers — a 52% decline compared to the 161,000 that Maddow and Wagner drew during their shows this year. 'She's kinda boring. She's not a great broadcaster,' one media insider told The Post on Tuesday Maddow, the network's highest paid star, returned to the anchor chair five days a week for the first 100 days of the Trump administration before going back to hosting her show just on Mondays at the beginning of last month. Wagner was pushed out for Psaki. Psaki's promotion from her weekend gig was part of a sweeping lineup shakeup at MSNBC aimed at injecting new energy into prime time and broadening its appeal. But early signs suggest the overhaul by new MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler, who took over from Rashida Jones in January, has backfired. Kutler quickly canceled Joy Reid's program 'The ReidOut' and replaced it with 'The Weeknight,' a rip-off of Fox's ratings champ 'The Five.' The roundtable show, co-hosted by Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele, averaged 772,000 viewers in May — a 19% drop from the 955,000 'The ReidOut' pulled in during its final month in February, according to Nielsen. Among the 25–54 demographic, the new crew averaged just 72,000 viewers, down 20% from what the Trump-bashing Reid garnered. Overall in primetime for May, MSNBC averaged 877,000 viewers, down 24% from the rest of the year. In the 25–54 demo, MSNBC averaged 73,000 viewers in primetime, a 34% drop. Across the full broadcast day last month, the network drew 545,000 viewers, down 33%, and just 49,000 in the key demo, a 41% decline. MSNBC declined to comment. 'In May, four months into the presidency, survey data shows rising news fatigue across all networks,' said a source close to the situation. The source added that Psaki has shown some signs of progress despite the overall downturn. ''The Briefing' builds on the audience of its 8 p.m. lead-in, which is a major improvement,' the insider said. News fatigue has apparently not affected Fox News' stranglehold in the ratings race. The conservative network, which shares common ownership with The Post, averaged 2.46 million viewers in prime time — up 23% — and 1.56 million across total day programming. In the demo, Fox pulled 262,000 viewers in prime time (up 32%) and 180,000 during the day (up 22%), according to Nielsen. Last-place CNN, meanwhile, continued to limp along, averaging just 426,000 total primetime viewers and 353,000 across the day, down 18% and 24%, respectively. The most-watched cable news show in May was Fox News' 'The Five' with 3.77 million viewers, followed by 'Jesse Watters Primetime' at 3.23 million. Fox also dominated with other top programs including 'Gutfield!' (2.92 million), 'Special Report with Brett Baier' (2.81 million), and 'Hannity' (2.73 million), who competes against Psaki. 'Since the election, Fox News has delivered the top 1,013 cable news telecasts,' the company said during an earnings call last month. 'This combination of an engaged audience and a dynamic news cycle led to record audience share in the quarter.' Originally published as MSNBC's Jen Psaki sees 47 per cent dip in ratings last month compared to Alex Wagner, Rachel Maddow: Nielsen
New York Post
03-06-2025
- Business
- New York Post
MSNBC's Jen Psaki sees 47% dip in ratings last month compared to Alex Wagner, Rachel Maddow: Nielsen
The Psaki bomb has turned into a major Psaki dud for left-leaning MSNBC. The embattled cable news network — which is expected to be spun off by parent company Comcast later this year — has seen ratings plunge nearly 50% in the pivotal 9 p.m. slot since Jen Psaki took over full-time hosting duties from Rachel Maddow last month. The 45-year-old anchor, who made a name for herself with her quick-witted 'Psaki bombs' while serving as former President Joe Biden's press secretary — but has since insisted she never saw signs of his mental decline — has drawn an average of 971,000 viewers since 'The Briefing with Jen Psaki' debuted on May 6 through May 28, according to the latest Nielsen ratings. Advertisement That's a staggering 47% falloff from the eyeballs attracted by Maddow and Alex Wagner in the timeslot. The drop-off is even more pronounced in the critical 25–54 age demographic prized by advertisers, where she drew just 78,000 viewers — a 52% decline compared to the 161,000 that Maddow and Wagner drew during their shows this year. 5 Jen Psaki's prime time MSNBC debut has gotten off to a rough start, according to the latest Nielsen figures. MSNBC Advertisement 'She's kinda boring. She's not a great broadcaster,' one media insider told The Post on Tuesday Maddow, the network's highest paid star, returned to the anchor chair five days a week for the first 100 days of the Trump administration before going back to hosting her show just on Mondays at the beginning of last month. Wagner was pushed out for Psaki. Psaki's promotion from her weekend gig was part of a sweeping lineup shakeup at MSNBC aimed at injecting new energy into prime time and broadening its appeal. But early signs suggest the overhaul by new MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler, who took over from Rashida Jones in January, has backfired. Advertisement Kutler quickly canceled Joy Reid's program 'The ReidOut' and replaced it with 'The Weeknight,' a rip-off of Fox's ratings champ 'The Five.' The roundtable show, co-hosted by Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele, averaged 772,000 viewers in May — a 19% drop from the 955,000 'The ReidOut' pulled in during its final month in February, according to Nielsen. 5 Psaki's show drew just 78,000 viewers from the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic — a 52% decline compared to the 161,000 that Rachel Maddow (above) and Alex Wagner pulled during earlier 2025 broadcasts. MSNBC Among the 25–54 demographic, the new crew averaged just 72,000 viewers, down 20% from what the Trump-bashing Reid garnered. Advertisement Overall in primetime for May, MSNBC averaged 877,000 viewers, down 24% from the rest of the year. In the 25–54 demo, MSNBC averaged 73,000 viewers in primetime, a 34% drop. Across the full broadcast day last month, the network drew 545,000 viewers, down 33%, and just 49,000 in the key demo, a 41% decline. MSNBC declined to comment. 'In May, four months into the presidency, survey data shows rising news fatigue across all networks,' said a source close to the situation. The source added that Psaki has shown some signs of progress despite the overall downturn. 5 Wagner was removed from her 9 p.m. prime time hosting slot from Tuesday through Friday as part of a lineup revamp. MSNBC ''The Briefing' builds on the audience of its 8 p.m. lead-in, which is a major improvement,' the insider said. News fatigue has apparently not affected Fox News' stranglehold in the ratings race. The conservative network, which shares common ownership with The Post, averaged 2.46 million viewers in prime time — up 23% — and 1.56 million across total day programming. Advertisement In the demo, Fox pulled 262,000 viewers in prime time (up 32%) and 180,000 during the day (up 22%), according to Nielsen. 5 MSNBC remains ensconced in second place in the cable news ratings race behind Fox News and ahead of CNN. Last-place CNN, meanwhile, continued to limp along, averaging just 426,000 total primetime viewers and 353,000 across the day, down 18% and 24%, respectively. The most-watched cable news show in May was Fox News' 'The Five' with 3.77 million viewers, followed by 'Jesse Watters Primetime' at 3.23 million. Fox also dominated with other top programs including 'Gutfield!' (2.92 million), 'Special Report with Brett Baier' (2.81 million), and 'Hannity' (2.73 million), who competes against Psaki. Advertisement 5 Fox said the network had 'one of the highest rated quarters in cable news history.' The channel shares common ownership with The Post. Ralf – 'Since the election, Fox News has delivered the top 1,013 cable news telecasts,' the company said during an earnings call last month. 'This combination of an engaged audience and a dynamic news cycle led to record audience share in the quarter.'
