MSNBC Anchor Rachel Maddow Blasts Her Network For Cancelling Joy Reid’s Show, Mistreating Staff

Longtime liberal MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow has slammed her own network for the cancellation of former fellow anchor Joy Reid’s show, The ReidOut.

Following reports over the weekend that Reid had been fired, it was officially announced on Monday that Reid, who is the only African American woman ever to have her own show in primetime on the network, will no longer be hosting on MSNBC.

Reid was fired by MSNBC’s new president Rebecca Kutler, who has promised a new era for the network under her supervision. The characteristically liberal network has already canceled several shows hosted by people of color, including Katie Phang and Alex Wagner.

Reid was given a farewell episode on Monday night, featuring Maddow, among other hosts. Maddow described herself as “bereft that The ReidOut is ending.” In Maddow’s own show, which took place roughly 90 minutes later, she took advantage of her platform to deliver some choice words regarding the network’s decision. 

Reviewing that Reid was gone from MSNBC, Maddow emphasized, “Joy is not taking a different job in the network. She is leaving the network altogether, and that is very, very, very hard to take.”

Maddow went on that there was “no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect that Joy Reid…I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her. 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. That’s what I think.”

She highlighted, “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,” she said. “And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.”

Despite her anger at Reid’s departure, Maddow made clear that she respects all the hosts who will be taking over the programs, saying “Everybody who’s going to be in anchor chairs from here on out are great colleagues and great at what they do.”

Maddow also took the network to task for its treatment of 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. “That has never happened at this scale in this way before when it comes to programming changes, presumably because it’s not the right way to treat people. And it’s inefficient and it’s unnecessary.”