MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes on Tuesday weighed in on the “devastating blow” of the cancelation of Joy Reid’s primetime show on the network while addressing the loss of some of his colleagues behind the scenes.
Hayes, who is off-air Mondays and didn’t join colleagues Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Lawrence O’Donnell on Reid’s final broadcast the night prior, echoed their sentiments on Tuesday night.
“It was a really devastating blow that Joy Reid’s show ended last night and that she’s leaving MSNBC altogether,” began Hayes, who showed a clip of their first on-air appearance together, which was on Hayes' morning show in Sept. 2012.
Hayes also noted the pair’s work on MSNBC’s Emmy-nominated 2018 special about racism, among their other endeavors.
“I really am going to miss her enormously,” he said. “I’m also completely, absolutely confident she’s going to continue to be a central voice in American politics at this critical time, particularly at a time when media is expanding in all sorts of amazing ways and people are doing all kinds of new things.”
Though Reid has made no formal announcement, during her sign-off Monday, she made a point to direct her audience to her Substack.
Hayes then noted how the “brilliant” and “supremely talented broadcaster” Alex Wagner will no longer be hosting a show, but will remain with MSNBC as a senior political analyst.
“She is going to be a fixture here on this show constantly, sharing her insights and reporting from the field,” Hayes said.
“I’m really going to miss Joy’s voice. I’m going to miss Alex at 9. I’m going to miss my other colleagues in their positions,” Hayes continued, alluding to anchors Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin and Katie Phang, who lost their weekend shows.
Phang will remain an MSNBC legal correspondent, while Capehart and Mohyeldin will host morning and night editions, respectively, of The Weekend. José Díaz-Balart’s show has also been cancelled, though he will still host NBC’s weekend edition of Nightly News.
Hayes, like Maddow did Monday night, emphasized how much of a team effort it is behind the scenes to get shows on air.
“Believe me: We understand how important covering the news is right now, and we’re not going to go anywhere. And we are also going to look out for the people who work here who are essential in doing this work that we all feel together collectively is so necessary at this moment,” Hayes affirmed.
“We know what we are here to do, and we are going to keep doing it.”
