(A version of this piece originally ran in my Too Much TV newsletter)
Monday'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.
Since the unofficial news began breaking over the weekend, I have 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:
And while Phang's loss of her show has been less covered in the media, she has done some impressive work and has a number of fans inside MSNBC. One producer I heard from who isn't associated with her show sent along these thoughts about her:
Katie has always been underappreciated by management. She's struggled to do the show in the way it makes the most sense for her, and to be honest, I think some of the problem is that she represents a generational point of view that doesn't always match the perspective of her bosses. Yes, she is still going to be on the network. But not in the role that best suits her skillset and without her own show, it won't be as easy for her to grow.
She deserves better.
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
