MSNBC’s Joy Reid will host a new program airing from 10 a.m.-noon ET on Saturdays and Sundays, taking over the timeslot left behind by Melissa Harris-Perry.
The show will debut May 7. “MSNBC viewers crave not only the facts, but also in-depth discussion and analysis from a range of perspectives,” said MSNBC President Phil Griffin, in a press statement. “There is no one better equipped than Joy to lead this new project, and create a place for the kind of unique discussion our audience has come to expect.”
In a statement, Reid said that Harris-Perry’s show was “incredibly valuable” and added: “Instead of trying to replace it, we will fill the space with something new, something compelling and something that adds to the conversation.
Harris-Perry left the network in a hail of tweets and emails after refusing to return to the slot to host election-cycle coverage, saying she was “not hungry for empty airtime.” Two months ago Harris-Perry and MSNBC confirmed she would not return to the cable network, after an email in which she denounced MSNBC’s decision to pre-empt her show for election-cycle coverage was leaked to The New York Times.
Reid was named a correspondent at the network after her program, The Reid Report, was cancelled following a decision to shift the network away from progressive-themed news programming and tilt it more toward breaking news. Her show followed one anchored by Ronan Farrow, and both were replaced by live coverage anchored by Thomas Roberts. Reid is a former talk radio producer and host for Radio One, and a former managing editor of theGrio.com, a daily online news and opinion site aimed at African-American audiences.
