Joy Reid tearfully defended her canceled MSNBC show and insisted it had “value” after the network announced plans to lay off her staff as part of a sweeping overhaul of its schedule.
The ReidOut host addressed the cancellation Sunday during a surprise appearance on a supportive call organized by Win With Black Women.
“I’ve been through every emotion from, you know, anger, rage, disappointment, hurt, you know, a feeling that, you know, guilt. You know, that I let my team lose their jobs,” Reid said, speaking through tears. “But in the end, where I really land and where I’ve landed on today is just gratitude.”
“Just pure gratitude and gratitude — not just because people would take the time to get on a call like this or to take care of me, but also that my show had value and that — I’m sorry — that what I was doing had value.”
Variety, The New York Times, and Status broke the news that Reid would lose her MSNBC show The ReidOut and that her staff found out from press reports. Reid became the first Black woman to host a daily primetime show in 2020.
MSNBC confirmed the changes on Monday and announced a rotating group of anchors would host the hour until a trio of Symone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez take over in April.
Reid walked through the issues she was most proud to cover, including the Black Lives Matter riots, the war in Gaza, and “what the President is doing that is subversive to the Constitution.”
“Where I come down on that is I’m not sorry,” Reid told the livestream viewers, which totaled more than 10,000. “I am not sorry that I stood up for those, those things, because those things are of God.”
