Joy Reid reveals 'real' reasons for her departure from MSNBC

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

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Ousted MSNBC host Joy Reid (pictured) claimed she was fired from the liberal network due to her race and 'anxiety' over President Donald Trump. Reid, whose show The ReidOut was canceled earlier this year, spoke with former Today Show host Katie Couric on her new podcast Monday when she addressed her termination.
'I try not to speculate too much publicly, because again I can't get inside the minds of other people,' Reid told Couric. 'But I can tell you what other people have speculated about... There are lots of people at the network who are critical of Donald Trump. I mean and they're still critical of him, I'm assuming. So I don't think that's [it] but I do know there's a lot of anxiety both there and I think in every media. We're seeing it at CBS,' she noted, referring to the president's ongoing lawsuit against the network over a 60 Minutes interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris.
'We're seeing it at ABC, where allegedly The View hosts were told not to go so hard on Trump,' Reid continued. 'There's a push for people to "Hey, do less Trump. Do more entertainment. Don't be hard on him."' When Couric then pointed out that fellow MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace were also hard on the president, Reid claimed the 'only way' she differed from them is because 'I'm a black woman doing the thing. I think that there is a difference for Trump in hearing the kinds of criticisms, specifically out of a black woman,' Reid claimed. 'It bothers him in a way it doesn't bother him like anything else.'
'He's got this sort of tick about race, you know, and about, sort of criticism coming specifically from a black woman because we've seen him lay out and dish out real abuse against black woman journalists.' she continued. The former MSNBC host went on to say she 'tried to constantly unpack the racial history of the country' on her show, which she said she can do 'because not only am I a black woman, but I come from immigrant parents who come from what Donald Trump would consider [expletive]hole countries.' Reid also denied that her show was canceled for failing ratings, claiming that it was 'down less' in ratings than any other MSNBC program except for Rachel Maddow's show.
The ReidOut had shed 47 percent of its total audience following the 2024 presidential election, averaging just 759,000 viewers, according to Fox News. Throughout the election cycle, though, the show was averaging 1.4 million viewers. 'Our show was down less than any other primetime show,' Reid told Couric on Monday. 'We were down - other than Rachel Maddow - we were down the least. 'So we were just told that we were holding on pretty well,' she said, arguing that she still doesn't know why she was fired - claiming the reason MSNBC executives gave was 'perfunctory' and 'scripted.'
She even noted that she was being careful on social media ahead of her ouster, apparently addressing a recent report suggesting her social media rants 'gave the Standards Department heartburn. 'Anytime I would tweet anything, I would get calls - I would get "Please get off Twitter, we hate it,"' the liberal news host admitted. 'They just don't like that it pulls their talent and their reporters out of control, because now you're not running what you're tweeting through Standards and Practices,' she told Couric. 'It's giving your personality directly to the audience, which they don't like because it's no longer managed and curated by them.' But in the lead up to her firing, Reid said 'we were being very careful and I was trying to be more careful about anything on social media.'
It has now been claimed that executives at the network had been trying to get rid of Reid since late 2023, before new MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler (Pictured) pulled the plug on her show this year. Reid's slot has since been taken over by The WeekNight, an ensemble program featuring former Kamala Harris spokeswoman Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez - the daughter of disgraced New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele. Yet MSNBC's new lineup has failed to perform, dropping 41 percent in the primetime demographic and 34 percent in the total day demo last month when compared to the year before. The Weeknight had just 707,000 viewers on May 22, but only 56,000 of them were in the key demographic.
The show has an average of 770,000 viewers, which is 36 percent lower than the 1.2 million that watched MSNBC at 7pm at the same time last year. Jen Psaki, who took over for Rachel Maddow during the 9pm timeslot from Tuesday to Friday, also saw a 46 percent drop from the average of 1.82 million who were watching her timeslot when Maddow was hosting during the first 100 days of the Trump administration. Psaki's numbers are also down 20 percent from the average of Alex Wagner, who hosted the show last year while Maddow was anchoring on Mondays. Even Maddow herself is failing to keep audiences interested. Her Monday program averaged 1.8 million total viewers since MSNBC launched its new shows, which represents a 24 percent dip from last year when she pulled in 2.4 million viewers.