The cancellation of Joy Reid’s The Reidout on MSNBC has riled her supporters, including former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross, who is calling for viewers to boycott the network.
Cross hosted The Cross Connection on MSNBC from 2020 to 2022, until her highly rated weekend morning show was canceled.
“Don’t watch where you’re not welcome,” Cross said in a Zoom call recorded for the Win With Black Women podcast on Monday. “Don’t shop where they won’t hire you. Don’t even hate-watch!”
Reid’s show was axed amid a programming shakeup at MSNBC, along with the shows of several other non-white hosts. The optics are not great—Rachel Maddow called the moves “indefensible” during own broadcast this week. Cross, who has her own uncomfortable history with the network, expressed her indignation on the same call where Reid gave her emotional thoughts about the cancellation.
“Don’t believe the hype about the ratings,” Cross said after Reid’s remarks. “Her show was doing very well. You know whose ratings ain’t doing well? Who ain’t never got fired? Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough—They went to kiss the ring and they are still being elevated.”
Cross’s show The Cross Connection went off air following Cross’s back and forth with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who claimed in a segment on his show (which drew backlash from the Anti-Defamation League) that Cross was trying to start a “race war” with white people. Not long after his segment aired, MSNBC cut Cross’ show and let her contract lapse.
The host opened up about her firing on her Native Land podcast last year, saying it was “very abrupt and it was very intentional to my audience, my viewers, that you are not the type of viewers that the company cares about. I was devastated when my show was canceled. I was so sad.”
An MSNBC source told Fox News that Cross was let go due to “repeated bad behavior on and off-air” and “bad judgment.” But Cross implied that the network’s thinking behind her own firing runs parallel with Reid’s. The former Reidout host also defended Cross on-air in 2022 when Cross Connection was canceled.
“There are people in positions of power who do not like her opinions and truth-telling courage,” Cross said of Reid on Monday, like “when she spoke about what was happening in Gaza, among a lot of other things. I am proud to call you my sister.”
