It appears that the cancellation of The Katie Phang Show on MSNBC was news even to the anchor herself.
In a statement posted to X after the network’s massive shake-up, Phang said she was shocked to learn that her eponymous show was being taken off the air.
“I was stunned to hear this morning that The Katie Phang Show is being canceled,” she said in the statement, which she described a “personal note.”
Phang said her goal since the show’s launch in 2022 was to share “important conversations with brilliant guests whose insight and analysis elevated the discussion.”
“I was proud to platform more AAPI voices than any other cable show ever,” she said. “And I was, and remain, proud to have been one of the only AAPI hosts with her name on a show. Representation matters.”
Phang will stay with MSNBC as a legal correspondent with no anchor slot. She was one of multiple non-white MSNBC anchors who lost their shows following a sweeping overhaul of the network’s daytime, primetime, and weekend schedules, led by its president, Rebecca Kutler.
The biggest name to get the chop was The ReidOut host Joy Reid, who shed tears in an emotional defense of her popular show.
“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. “But in the end, where I really land and where I’ve landed on today is just gratitude.”
Reid is reportedly eyeing a Substack venture after her departure from MSNBC.
Anchors Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin are also losing their weekend shows and will instead host separate editions of The Weekend. Miami-based anchor José Díaz-Balart’s show was also axed, though he will stay on to host NBC’s weekend edition of Nightly News.
MSNBC star anchor Rachel Maddow blasted her own network on Monday night over the bloodbath.
“I will tell you it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two—count them, two—non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend,” she said. “And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible, and I do not defend it.”
Over in Trumpworld, the cancellation of Reid’s show was met with glee.
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social Sunday night to go off on what he dubbed “MSDNC.”
Trump celebrated that the network “has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid. Based on her ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been ‘canned’ long ago, along with everyone else who works there.”
Conservative firebrand Megyn Kelly said she was “thrilled” to hear of Reid’s exit.
“She literally was the most racist person on television,” Kelly said on the Monday episode of her self-titled show. “But, you know it’s like, we won’t have her to kick around anymore so there’s a little sadness in that.”
MSNBC’s ratings have rebounded after a turbulent post-election drop, beating out CNN as left-wing viewers flock to its combative coverage of the second Trump administration.
