Rachel Maddow Live on MSNBC: It's a 'Bad Mistake' to Let Joy Reid Leave Network

Mar. 15, 2025

(L-R) Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid.Photo:Jamie McCarthy/Getty; John Lamparski/Getty

Jamie McCarthy/Getty; John Lamparski/Getty

Rachel Maddowis speaking out hours after it was announced that Joy Reid would be exiting MSNBC.

She said that throughout her career, “There is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid.”

“I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her. I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC," said Maddow.

Joy Reid.William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty

William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty

“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,” she added while looking around the room. “But that’s what I think.”

BecauseAlex Wagneralso lost her show amid theongoing shakeupsin television news, Maddow said it is “unnerving” that “both of our non-white hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend.”

While Phang will lose her show, she will stay with the network as MSNBC’s legal correspondent. Wagner is also remaining at the network as a senior political analyst.

Rotating anchors areexpected to fillThe ReidOut’s7 p.m. ET slot in the coming weeks. Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez, current hosts ofThe Weekend, will now move to weekdays at 7 p.m. to host a new ensemble news hour. This will make Menendez the first Latina in MSNBC primetime.

Rachel Maddow at “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen”.Charles Sykes/Bravo/Getty

Charles Sykes/Bravo/Getty

Maddow said that “feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible, and I do not defend it.”

Maddow said that while her colleagues are being invited to apply for new jobs, it “has never happened at this scale in this way before when it comes to programming changes, presumably because it is not the right way to treat people, and it’s inefficient and it’s unnecessary.”

Rachel Maddow.Heidi Gutman/MSNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

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She said that “this kind of limbo, the anxiety and the discombobulation is off the charts, at a time when this job already is extra stressful and difficult.”

Reid’s departure occurred hours after NBCNightly NewsanchorLester Holtannounced he would beexiting the show this summer after more than 10 years.

source: people.com