MSNBC fires Rachel Maddow’s staff amid network restructuring

According to The Guardian, the Comcast-owned network informed employees—including those working on “Alex Wagner Tonight”—that they can either apply for different roles within MSNBC or accept severance packages. The move is part of a broader plan to reorganize as the network faces abysmal ratings.

Despite the staff cuts, Maddow, who remains MSNBC’s top anchor, will keep her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, along with a select group of senior producers.

Many others, including producers from the now-canceled shows of Alex Wagner, Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin, and José Díaz-Balart, will need to secure new jobs either at MSNBC or elsewhere.

An MSNBC insider pushed back against claims that the move constituted layoffs, telling The New York Post that the changes are a "reallocation of resources" to support the network’s evolving priorities.

The network says that cut employees will be given priority in applying for new positions before outside candidates are considered.

While Reid, known for her often inflammatory rhetoric, is out at MSNBC entirely, the other ousted hosts—Wagner, Phang, Capehart, Mohyeldin, and Díaz-Balart—will reportedly remain with the network but in different capacities or time slots.

On Monday, Maddow used her platform to slam the decision, hinting that the network’s leadership may have been racially motivated in removing Reid, who is black, and demoting Wagner, whose mother is Burmese.

“There is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid,” Maddow said in a monologue.

“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.”

Maddow added, “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’s what I think.”