EXCLUSIVE: Secrets of MSNBC's Death Spiral! How Network is 'Set to Hurl Talent Overboard in Bloodbath Cull' As Bosses Scramble to Save Cash Amid Tanking Ratings
MSNBC bosses are said to be eyeing further lay-offs at the network. with the likes of Joy Reid, above, having already dramatically exited the network.
March 13 2025, Published 7:30 a.m. ET
MSNBC bosses are getting set to unleash radical changes including a brutal talent cull at the spiraling liberal news network as it desperately goes into crisis mode, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
"It's gonna be a bloodbath," warned an insider amid growing rumors lay-offs are on the horizon. "The network's making sweeping changes, and no one's job is safe. Execs are desperate to stop the ratings freefall, but it might be too late."
The struggling network canceled The ReidOut, hosted by Joy Reid, and shuffled several of its other hosts into new time slots, including Michael Steele, Symone Sanders-Townsend, Katie Phang and Alicia Menendez.
Joy Reid's $3million salary is gone as MSNBC battles plunging rating figures.
The network also moved ultra-liberal host Alex Wagner to a special assignment and has canceled other shows – which insiders say is all a reflection of President Donald Trump's rise to power and the network's seeming lack of connection to American viewers who are flowing to conservative mouthpiece Fox News.
Reid was pulling down a whopping $3million a year but reportedly lost half her audience since the election in November. Meanwhile, MSNBC lost 53 percent of its viewers in the same period before a slight rebound recently.
"The network is out of touch with large blocks of Americans – not unlike Kamala Harris and the Democrats were in the last election," our source warned.
Commentator Rachel Maddow slammed MSNBC's lay-offs as racist after Reid lost her show.
The insider went on: "Decision-makers understand that and are trying to compensate by shedding some of their uber-liberal shills. Still, the network's squawking heads don't seem to get it.
Rachel Maddow, whose viewership was more than doubled by her Fox rival Sean Hannity on some evenings in February, branded the lay-offs so far racist as most of those fired have been from minority groups.
"It is also unnerving to see on a network where we've go two, count 'em, two non-whit hosts in primetime... losing their shows," Maddow said, without mentioning the ratings of the departed.
But insiders said new network president Rebecca Kutler has been tasked to reverse the fortunes of the withering business, which is consistently getting waxed by Fox.
Under her direction, MSNBC is now trying to find ways to work with the Trump White House and otherwise deal with the country's conservative shift.
New MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler is scrambling to save the network.
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"Our jobs are hard on a normal day, and these are not normal times," Kutler told employees in November.
MSNBC is also being rattled by another new reality – its parent company Comcast is jettisoning the network by spinning it off NBC, positioning it for sale.
Our source said: "Comcast wants to off-load MSNBC and all of its baggage. They're packaging it with other struggling networks like CNBC and the Golf Channel. It's a fire sale."
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough has summed up the dire situation by nervously joking on air: "We could all be fired a year from now."
