{"id":2070,"date":"2025-03-17T06:35:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T06:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/archives\/2070"},"modified":"2025-03-17T06:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T06:36:29","slug":"msnbcs-two-biggest-stars-will-survive-the-networks-brutal-shakeup-the-biggest-surprise-finally-confirmed-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/?p=2070","title":{"rendered":"MSNBC’s two biggest stars will survive the network’s brutal shakeup, the biggest surprise finally confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two of MSNBC\u2019s biggest stars are safe from the network\u2019s\u00a0major programming overhaul\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 despite plummeting ratings.<\/p>\n

Morning Joe, hosted by former Congressman Joe Scarborough and his wife Mika\u00a0Brzezinski, lost nearly half of its audience since President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/span>\u00a0won the\u00a0election<\/span>, new Nielsen figures show.<\/p>\n

It saw its audience shrink by 40 percent, from 1.1million before November 5 to just 651,000 viewers between November 6 and this past Friday.<\/p>\n

Yet amid fears of who may be next after Joy Reid\u2019s dismissal, DailyMail.com has learned Scarborough and Brzezinski are two fixtures that won\u2019t need to worry.<\/p>\n

\u2018Joe and Mika are categorically not going anywhere. Nothing here. Full stop,\u2019 Richard Hudock, an MSNBC spokesperson, said.<\/p>\n

Morning Joe also saw its audience members in the key 25 to 54 age range shrink. The demographic is of prime interest to advertisers.<\/p>\n

Before the November 5 election, the show was averaging 123,000 viewers in the demographic. But since then, that figure has plummeted to just 67,000.<\/p>\n

In contrast,\u00a0Fox News<\/span>\u2018\u00a0morning show, Fox & Friends, pulled in an average of 1.5million viewers during that time period \u2013 a 29 percent increase from last January 1 through November 5.<\/p>\n

\"Morning<\/p>\n

Morning Joe, hosted by former Congressman Joe Scarborough and his wife Mika Brzezinski,\u00a0lost nearly half of its audience since President Donald Trump won the election<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scarborough and Brzezinski appeared to have struggled to gain momentum since they\u00a0visited Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort<\/span>\u00a0in the aftermath of his decisive win, which the couple were forced to defend when they\u00a0received backlash<\/span>\u00a0from both conservative and liberal media figures.<\/p>\n

\u2018All of us will do the best we can do and we\u2019re all working towards a better America,\u2019 Scarborough said on air after\u00a0The View\u2019s Ana Navarro called them \u2018opportunistic<\/span>\u2018 and asked whether they \u2018change[d] their stripes\u2019 because of \u2018who\u2019s in power.\u2019<\/p>\n

Former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross also accused them of \u2018kissing the ring\u2019 as she called\u00a0on black Americans\u00a0to boycott the network<\/span>\u00a0following Joy Reid\u2019s ouster.<\/p>\n

Cross denied that Reid\u2019s firing was\u00a0related to MSNBC\u2019s dismal ratings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t believe the hype about the ratings,\u2019 she urged\u00a0on the Win With Black Women podcast Monday.\u00a0\u2018Her show was doing very well.<\/p>\n

\u2018You know whose ratings aren\u2019t doing well? Who ain\u2019t never got fired? Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough \u2013 They went to kiss the ring and they are still being elevated.\u2019<\/p>\n

Instead, Cross \u2013 whose own show on the network was canceled after two years \u2013 chalked Reid\u2019s ouster to a difference in opinions between Reid and the network executives.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are people in positions of power who do not like her opinions and truth-telling courage,\u2019 Cross claimed, like \u2018when she spoke about what was happening in Gaza, among a lot of other things.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The couple have struggled to gain momentum since they visited Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in the aftermath of his decisive win. They are pictured with Trump in 2015<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the network has since defended Morning Joe\u2019s ratings, telling\u00a0the New York Post\u00a0that the morning show has seen its total viewership increase from Inauguration Day by 17 percent \u2013 from 587,000 in the period from November 5 to January 20, to 684,000 since Trump took office.<\/p>\n

In the 25 to 54 year old demographic, Morning Joe is averaging 24 percent more viewers since the inauguration, from 55,000 prior to January 20 to 68,000 since,\u00a0the spokesperson noted.<\/p>\n

They added that Morning Joe also continued to command a larger audience overall than its liberal rival CNN in February \u2013 the 120th consecutive month it has done so, despite falling behind the network\u2019s morning show in the 25 to 54 demographic over the past two months.<\/p>\n

The news comes as\u00a0new MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler seeks to stabilize the network\u2019s ratings.<\/p>\n

She announced a series of changes to MSNBC\u2019s programming on Monday, after being forced to confirm Reid\u2019s ouster\u00a0to angry staff members<\/span>\u00a0when the news was leaked to the staff.<\/p>\n

Her 7pm EST time slot will now be replaced by a panel show co-hosted by Symone Sanders Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/p>\n

On Monday, MSNBC\u2019s new president Rebecca Kutler announced a slew of changes to the network\u2019s programming as she seeks to stabilize its ratings<\/p>\n

\"MSNBC<\/p>\n

MSNBC is also working\u00a0to consolidate broadcast locations to New York and Washington, DC<\/p>\n

Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin were also given the boot from their current timeslots as part of the changes.<\/p>\n

Capehart and Mohyeldin \u2013 currently the hosts of The Saturday\/Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart and Ayman, respectively \u2013 will man programs yet to be named, staffers confirmed.<\/p>\n

Mohyeldin, who hosts Ayman Mohyeldin Reports, will broadcast its final episode on April 20 at 7pm, a spokesperson confirmed.<\/p>\n

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will also now\u00a0 anchor a primetime nightly weekday show, taking over Alex Wagner\u2019s current slot.<\/p>\n

He will stay with the network as a senior political analyst, according to Kutler\u2019s memo.<\/p>\n

At the same time,\u00a0\u00a0Rachel Maddow, who is arguably the network\u2019s biggest star, will revert to\u00a0hosting the 9pm slot once a week<\/span>, it added.<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0namesake show will return to Mondays at 9pm following the first 100 days of the\u00a0Trump<\/span>\u00a0Administration.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow torched her bosses Monday after canceling Joy Reid\u2019s low-rated talk show<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as MSNBC works to consolidate broadcast locations to New York and Washington, DC, the network is also planning to end operations in Miami \u2013 in a move that will impact shows like Jos\u00e9 D\u00edaz-Balart Reports and The Katie Phang Show.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Balart will stay with NBC News as anchor of Weekend Nightly News, the staff memo notes, while Phang will remain with MSNBC as a legal correspondent, after already serving as legal analyst\u00a0for NBCUniversal since 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018In the years ahead, we must continue to show up for our audiences in this critical moment while simultaneously best positioning ourselves for the future,\u2019 Kutler wrote Monday \u2013 adding she had hoped to share such changes with staff directly and \u2018understand the frustration that you first learned about this over the weekend and not from me.\u2019<\/p>\n

But Maddow railed against the changes on her show as she hit out at Kutler and other network executives for firing Reid and\u00a0other \u2018non-white\u2019 anchors.<\/p>\n

\u2018I 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. But that\u2019s what I think,\u2019 Maddow said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018I will tell you. It is also unnerving to see that on a network where we\u2019ve got two \u2013 count them \u2013 two nonwhite hosts in primetime, both of our nonwhite hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u2018And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of MSNBC\u2019s biggest stars are safe from the network\u2019s\u00a0major programming overhaul\u00a0\u2013 despite plummeting ratings. Morning Joe, hosted by former Congressman Joe Scarborough and his wife Mika\u00a0Brzezinski, lost nearly half … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2073,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions\/2073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}