Joy Reid says MSNBC wanted to control what she tweeted before abrupt show cancellation: 'We hate it'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Renowned TV host and political commentator Joy Reid has revealed that MSNBC pressured her to scale back her social media activity before ultimately removing her from its primetime lineup, despite her show’s strong performance.
In a candid interview with Katie Couric on Monday, June 2, Reid said network executives were “horrified” by her unfiltered online presence and repeatedly urged her to stop tweeting.
Her show, 'The ReidOut', was abruptly canceled in February without explanation, even after earning an NAACP Image Award and maintaining steady ratings.
Joy Reid opens up about cancellation of her show ‘The ReidOut’
In a recent interview, Joy Reid explained the cancellation of 'The ReidOut' during a recent interview with Katie Couric, who asked her directly what "really happened."
Reid responded, “I’ve been asked this so many times, and people think that I’m just saying it to BS, but I’m being honest with you—I don’t know.”
She recalled that, shortly before receiving the news, her team had been exchanging emails with the PR department celebrating their NAACP Image Award win, as per DailyBeast.
Reid clarified that ratings weren’t the issue. “We had just had a ratings meeting a couple of weeks before that talking about the fact that our show… other than Rachel Maddow, we were down the least," she said. In fact, reports from March indicated that her ratings were on the rise when the show was canceled.
“We were just told that we were doing… that we were holding on pretty well,” Reid added. “And then, you know, it’s not like the ratings have gotten better since I’ve been gone.”
She also described how the news of her show’s cancellation was delivered - it felt “scripted” and “very perfunctory,” with no clear explanation.
“I wasn’t told ‘The ratings were terrible,’ ‘It’s something you did,’ ‘You tweeted a terrible thing,” Reid noted, adding that she had already been exercising extra caution on social media because of the heightened scrutiny and anxiety around online behavior at the time.
Joy Reid says her use of social media platforms influenced her bosses’ response
Joy Reid also discussed how her use of social media platforms like Twitter influenced her bosses' response. "And anytime I would tweet anything, I would get calls—I would get, ‘Please get off Twitter, we hate it."
She added, "They just don’t like that it pulls their talent and their reporters out of their control because now you’re not running what you’re tweeting through Standards and Practices,"
She continued, "It’s giving your personality directly to the audience, which they don’t like because it’s no longer managed and curated by them.”
While Reid doesn’t necessarily believe her outspoken criticism of Donald Trump was the reason for the cancellation — as some fans have speculated — she admitted she can’t entirely dismiss it either.
“I’m a Black woman doing this job,” she said. “You know what I mean? And so I’m not different" from Rachel Maddow or Nicolle Wallace in terms of the criticism.
She added, "I think that there’s a difference for Trump in hearing the kinds of criticisms, specifically, out of a Black woman. It bothers him in a way it doesn’t bother him like anything else."
She also remarked, “There’s a fear of him—we’re seeing it everywhere.”
Looking ahead, Reid is preparing to launch a new YouTube show and podcast titled 'The Joy Reid Show', premiering June 9. Her reflections on MSNBC came during a candid preview conversation with Couric, which she later posted to YouTube after livestreaming it on her website.
Her remarks follow MSNBC’s unexplained cancellation of 'The ReidOut' in February, a move that was part of a broader network reshuffle after Trump’s election victory - one that also saw the departure of several non-white anchors.
