Tiffany Cross goes off on MSNBC over Joy Reid’s axing as she asks Black viewers to boycott network

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross just put her old network on blast after it axed Joy Reid, urging Black viewers to ditch the Comcast-owned channel.

She also went after 'Morning Joe' hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for allegedly “bending the knee” to President Donald Trump.

Cross—who was let go from MSNBC in 2022 after repeatedly clashing with execs over her takes on 'The Cross Connection'—came out swinging during an “emergency meeting” podcast.

Tiffany Cross calls for MSNBC boycott

Speaking on the 'Win With Black Women' podcast, Tiffany Cross made it clear she had some things to get off her chest. “I’m going to try to stop myself from delivering some four-letter words,” she began, as quoted by Mediaite.

She then dropped the hammer, calling on Black viewers to completely cut off MSNBC. “Don’t watch where you’re not welcome! Don’t shop where they won’t hire you!” she declared.

“The same thing they say. Don’t even hate-watch!" she added.

According to Cross, MSNBC is about to go into full damage-control mode by spinning narratives to justify Reid’s ousting.

“So brace yourself because y’all are going to hear the things, and they don’t try to say some things because when movement happens, they don’t know how Black women move!” she warned, comparing the network’s execs to “colonizers".

Cross wasn’t buying the idea that MSNBC let Reid go due to low ratings. She called that explanation complete nonsense. “Don’t believe the hype about the ratings. Her show was doing very well,” she insisted.

Instead, Cross turned her attention to 'Morning Joe', taking aim at hosts Scarborough and Brzezinski, who haven’t been shown the door despite their alleged ratings struggles.

“You know whose ratings ain’t doing well? Who ain’t never got fired? Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough,” she said.

“They went to kiss the ring and they are still being elevated,” she added, referencing the co-hosts’ post-election visit to Mar-a-Lago to “restart communication” with Trump—even after spending months calling him a “fascist” and a threat to democracy.

Numbers don’t lie

While Tiffany Cross dismissed the ratings excuse, there’s no denying that Joy Reid’s show had taken a hit before its cancellation.

Back in early December last year, her viewership had plummeted to around 759,000—down 47% from the previous 1.4 million average. By February, it had bounced back slightly to 973,000, but that was still far from its peak.

Meanwhile, on February 20, Reid’s show pulled in 778,000 viewers—making it only the seventh most-watched show on MSNBC and a lowly 126th on TV overall, according to Nielsen.

That said, 'Morning Joe’s numbers haven’t been great either. Between November 6 and this past Friday, February 21, the show saw a 40% drop in total viewers and an even steeper 46% decline in the key 25-54 demographic.

By comparison, 'Fox & Friends' was absolutely crushing it, pulling in more than twice the total viewers and three times as many in the advertiser-coveted demo.

Before the election, 'Morning Joe' had a 42% share of the cable news audience. But since November 5, that number has plunged to just 27%.

Current and former MSNBC stars upset over Joy Reid's axing

Tiffany Cross isn’t the only former MSNBC star going off on the network.

Keith Olbermann, who has made a second career out of posting rants and diatribes on social media, ripped into MSNBC on Monday, February 24. He called the decision to cancel Reid’s show—along with those of Alex Wagner, Ayman Mohyeldin, Jonathan Capehart, and Katie Phang—a full-blown “racist purge.”

Even Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell—two of MSNBC’s biggest prime-time anchors—took shots at management on their shows on Monday night, the New York Post reported.