Steve Kornacki exits MSNBC for new deal with NBC News and NBC Sports
MSNBC viewers have seen the last of Steve Kornacki's big board.
The popular data maven has signed a deal with NBC that will expand his presence across the network's news and sports divisions.
But the new contract does not include working for MSNBC, which is being spun off into a new corporate entity formed by parent company Comcast.
Under the spinoff arrangement, MSNBC and NBC News are separating their operations, with the left-leaning cable network building its own newsgathering unit. Kornacki has chosen to remain with NBC.
Kornacki, 45, will continue to be NBC's go-to expert for statistical analysis of polls and election results and during major sporting events, including Triple Crown horse racing, the Olympics and the NFL.
He will appear on the streaming channel NBC News Now along with the broadcast network franchises "Meet the Press," "Today" and "NBC Nightly News."
A representative for NBC News confirmed the move Tuesday. A representative for MSNBC declined to comment on Kornacki's exit, but noted the cable network is hiring more than 100 journalists in preparation for its split from NBC News. The search is already on for a new data guru.
On Tuesday, the network announced that correspondent Antonia Hylton, who worked at NBC News and MSNBC, is joining the cable network full time and will co-host "The Weekend: Primetime" alongside Ayman Mohyeldin, Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell and political analyst Elise Jordan.
Kornacki's new deal, which makes him an NBC contributor with the title of chief data analyst, allows him to pursue projects on other networks and media platforms as long as they are unrelated to politics and sports.
He shot a game show pilot in 2022 and, as a major enthusiast of the genre, is likely to pursue a hosting role in the future.
Kornacki's choice to depart from MSNBC is a significant loss. He will be the second big name on-air talent to leave since the spin-off was announced. MSNBC fired longtime host Joy Reid last month.
Kornacki's deep dives into polling numbers and voting results became a signature ingredient in the network's political coverage, especially after he put in marathon hours in front of his touchscreen electoral college map when it took four days to call the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden.
Read more: Why fans are still coming to 'The Office' 20 years later
Kornacki's genuine enthusiasm (and trademark khaki pants from the Gap) won him a major following on social media, including celebrity fans Chrissy Teigen and Leslie Jones. In 2020, People magazine named him as one of its Sexiest Men Alive. ("There was some voter fraud on that one," he told The Times in 2021).
Kornacki started out writing about politics, earning him contributor work on CNN. He joined MSNBC in 2012 as a co-host of a panel show called 'The Cycle' and was later part of the MSNBC lineup on afternoons and weekends.
After Kornacki became a pop culture sensation during the 2020 election, NBC expanded his role to sports in 2021.
As a horse racing analyst, he picked the 12-1 paying winner of the Kentucky Derby during the network's coverage of the race. He also became a regular on NBC's "Football Night In America" and the half-time report for "Sunday Night Football," and broke down the medal counts during its Olympics coverage.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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