Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, February 24th, 2025:
PRODUCTION NOTES
This is another newsletter than I am extremely proud of putting together. There are exclusive comments and perspective you won't read elsewhere. So if you pass this along to anyone who might be interested, I would appreciate it. It can be challenging for an independent journalist to cut through the news clutter.
CHANGES AT MSNBC
As I expected this morning when I did my subscriber video, today's biggest media story has been the programming changes at MSNBC. I'm not going to recap the details again here, given that they've been reported elsewhere all day. But here's the full memo that was sent out this morning by MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler.
I knew that at least a few people from MSNBC read this newsletter, but I didn't realize how many until this news began to break over the weekend. I heard from a number of people at the network, and there was mixed reactions to the news. And with their permission, I'm going to share a couple of them.
The first is from someone who works/worked on Joy's show and had some thoughts about why the decision was made to cancel the show.
I've read a lot of what you've written about DEI and the big media companies. And I wanted to pass along some thoughts I have about why our show was targeted. I've seen some fans of the show argue this was the result of the network not wanting to support a strong black woman and I honestly don't think that's the primary reason. I don't know for sure, but ratings were certainly softer than the network would have liked and I don't think they saw a way for us to improve on that.
We always felt the issue was less about Joy and more about the guests we booked. I know there was some suggestions we needed to have a show that was more mainstream, although I don't know that we ever got a sense of what that meant. And to be fair, I don't think they meant too black when they were talking about mainstream. I think they wanted Joy to talk more about the stories that would also be covered during the rest of the daypart. And that wasn't always us.
This is just my personal opinion, but I don't think it's a coincidence the network has pushed out some of the talent who has offered up opinions that might be less popular with some of our audience. Which - as we've been reminded more than once - is kind of old and more white than not. So having someone on-air talking about atrocities in Gaza or the challenges being faced by HBCUs is not going to grow our audience or make advertisers happy. Even if they are important stories.
I also don't think this was driven by anything Trump might do. Although I am cynical enough to suspect it's one less thing management will have to worry about.
Along those lines, more than one person at the network wanted to highlight that somewhat buried in this flurry of changes was the news that weekend news anchor Ayman Mohyeldin is losing his show and will apparently be part of one of the new weekend panel shows:
They don't know what to do with Ayman. He's been clear that he's not in the "always pro-Israel" crowd at the network, although I think his coverage while covering Gaza was stellar. And he has really shined on primetime when given the chance to bring perspective on the region. I just think he scares the execs a bit. They also realize he brings something distinctive and I suspect there is some fear if he leaves the network, he'll just be the next Mahdi Hasan. An ex-cable news journalist who builds a new and better career on Substack.
Katie Phang is also losing her weekend dayside program and will shift over to become an MSNBC legal correspondent. Earlier today, Phang posted a statement about the cancellation on social media:
One last thought. I'm sorry to see Alex Wagner lose her primetime anchor. I have no idea whether or not she's happy being permanently moved to the roving news correspondent role at the network. She's obviously good at that. But it always felt as if she had a really different approach to the anchor job in her, but it never quite seemed to jell. Certainly being saddled with the "Not Rachel Tonight" anchor role is a thankless one for anyone.
As always, if you have anything to share, reach out confidentially at
I THINK THE NY TIMES MIGHT HAVE MISSED A COUPLE OF DETAILS
When I read the NY Times piece on the MSNBC changes earlier today, this paragraph jumped out at me:
I think Townsend is more than a "political commentator and former Democratic strategist." Townsend joined the 2020 presidential campaign of former vice president Joe Biden as a senior advisor in 2019 and after Biden won election, was named chief spokesperson and a senior advisor for Vice President Kamala Harris. So she has very close ties to the former Biden Administration.
I HAVE HEARD THIS FROM A COUPLE OF PEOPLE
The Ankler's latest edition of "Salary Confessions" includes comments from a Gen Z creative executive and this paragraph grabbed my attention, because I've heard similar complaints from other showrunners and producers I've spoken with in the past:
But consider this — a friend of mine is in a writers room, and the streamer/studio showed up with their assigned executives to hear the season pitch. All nine of them. Nine execs to hear a pitch. That’s almost twice as many execs as writers. Let’s be honest. Do execs 7-9 really add value here? (Or 4-6? Or . . .). Is this really the right proportion of execs to writers in the room? To me, this seems somewhat parallel to what’s happening at colleges, whose administrative headcounts have skyrocketed over the last 20 but whose professors remain underpaid while facing larger and larger class sizes. The overseers hire more overseers, while McKinsey encourages the people actually doing the work — like the writers — to “try doing more with less.”
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* CBS and Dick Clark Productions announced today that the 2025 American Music Awards will air on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, live from Las Vegas on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
* Eva Longoria: Searching for Spain, the latest entry in CNN's Searching For unscripted franchise, will premiere on the news network on Sunday, April 27th.
* The drama September 5, which is currently up for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, will make its streaming debut on Paramount+ in the U.S. and Canada on February 25th.
* Season three of Leverage: Redemption will premiere Thursday, April 17th on Prime Video.
* AMC has ordered a fourth season of Dark Winds. The news comes ahead of the premiere of its third season on March 9th.
* Max has ordered it first Italian scripted series. Portobello, a series by Marco Bellocchio, will debut on Max in 2026.
* Mid-Century Modern, is a new comedy from Max Mutchnick and David Kohan that also marks Linda Lavin’s final role before her death in December. The multi-cam series will premiere Friday, March 28th on Hulu.
* Actor John Lawlor, who starred on Phyllis and The Facts Of Life, is dead at age 83.
WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24TH:
Beyond The Gates Series Premiere (CBS)
Posso Entrare? An Ode To Naples (Hulu)
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH:
Big Family, Big City (TLC)
Eyes On The Prize III: We Who Believe In Freedom Cannot Rest (PBS)
Full Swing Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy (Peacock)
SEE YOU ON TUESDAY!
Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, February 24th, 2025
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- By Rick Ellis
