The firing of Joy Reid and the cancellation of her far left MSNBC show may have been in the works for over a year in anticipation of the massive shakeup now rattling through the flailing cable news network.

 During contract negotiations last year, NBCUniversal executives had only signed Ms. Reid, a liberal firebrand known for her inflammatory rhetoric about MAGA conservatives, to a one-year extension, according to a report from Status News, an independent newsletter helmed by former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, who wrote that such short-term deals are a stopgap measure to “buy time.” Most talent contracts in network news run three to five years.

“[H]er fate had been all but sealed long ago,” Mr. Darcy writes. “Last year, when her expiring contract was renegotiated, MSNBC brass only signed her to a one-year extension, I’m told—a clear sign that network executives were keeping their options open rather than making a long-term commitment.”

Ms. Reid has recently seen a decline in her show’s ratings, with only 973,000 total viewers in February, down 28 percent from the same month in 2024. But her decline generally tracks that of MSNBC’s other evening programs. 

However, compared to her MSNBC co-stars, Ms. Reid has had a high number  of controversial moments in recent years. After the presidential election in November, she declared that Black women had lost interest in “saving America” after news broke that White female voters turned out in high numbers to elect Mr. Trump. Just last month, she compared Mr. Trump’s policies and efforts to deport illegal immigrants akin to Hitler’s Germany.

Ms. Reid continues to be dogged by old blog entries from her past that resurfaced in 2019, where she made homophobic and other offensive comments. She claimed, without evidence, that she’d been “hacked” and said she was involving the FBI to catch the perpetrator. Her career was saved when MSNBC’s biggest star, Rachel Maddow, who is openly gay, weighed in with her support.

As parent company Comcast prepares to spin off MSNBC, along with all but one of its other cable networks, from the the Peacock Network into a new entity later this year, Mark Lazarus, who is overseeing what will eventually become SpinCo, has made clear in private his desire to soften the public perception of the channel, according to Status.

In conversations with other network officials, Mr. Lazarus has said that he believed that Republicans view MSNBC as an outlet where they cannot get a fair shake, according to Mr. Darcy’s report. The executive is actively trying to change that notion by keeping their progressive brand but in a more broadly appealing manner, an approach he has reportedly discussed with new network president Rebecca Kutler.

Comcast requires some regulatory approval from the Trump Administration to execute the spin-off of its cable channel. And the provisionally named SpinCo has aspirations to make acquisitions itself which would also need some government approvals. Like CBS, which is reportedly considering settling Mr. Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit concerning its editing of the “60 Minutes” interview of Vice President Harris interview; and Disney, which settled with Mr. Trump for $16 million over George Stephanopoulos’ false comments about Mr. Trump, Comcast may be looking to resolve some of its worst pressure points with Mr. Trump, who on Monday called Ms. Reid a “mentally obnoxious racist.” Notably, he placed the blame for her behavior on the chairman of Comcast, Brian Roberts and said Comcast should pay dearly for its misconduct.

And back at MSNBC, Ms. Kutler has continued to wield her axe across MSNBC’s lineup, with three other liberal personalities losing their shows. 

Among those the latest to have their shows canceled through the significant shakeup of the network include weekend programming hosted by Jose Diaz-Balart, who will continue to anchor the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News, and Katie Phang, who will stay on at MSNBC as a legal correspondent, according to a report from CNN.

Rumors about Alex Wagner’s show not returning were also confirmed on Monday by network officials.

Alex Wagner, who took over hosting duties for the 9 p.m. hour after Rachel Maddow moved her show to one day a week, will not return to Ms. Maddow’s current nightly schedule until the first hundred days of the new Trump presidency ends, instead staying on as a senior political analyst. Once Ms. Maddow ends her nightly run and shifts back to the weekly program, the hour will be helmed by former White House Secretary Jen Psaki, whose program, “Inside with Jen Psaki,” has quickly become the channel’s most-watched show on the weekends.

The cancellation of Ms. Reid’s show and her subsequent firing from the network has led to a backlash among the staff at MSNBC, including from one of their most prominent anchors.

Ms. Maddow took time out of her program on Monday to criticize her employer, which pays her $25 million annually to anchor one show a week (she’s doing her show five days a week during the president’s first hundred days), saying it was “very, very, very hard” to understand why her colleagues were canned.

“It’s not my call, and I understand that,” Ms. Maddow said. “But that’s what I think. I will tell you, it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we have two—count them, two—non-white hosts in prime time, both of our non-white hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend. And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them.” 

“That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.”

Ms. Reid is Black and Ms. Wagner is half Burmese and half white.

Ms. Reid’s show will be replaced by an ensemble show helmed by Black and Hispanic news personalities. The remaining solo anchors in prime time – Ms. Maddow, Ms, Psaki, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell, are all white.