Guyanese-American MSNBC host Joy Reid is leaving the network, MSNBC’s new president announced in a memo to staff on Monday, marking the end of The ReidOut, her prime-time show that has been a fixture of the network’s evening programming since 2020.
Reid, a progressive political analyst and veteran broadcast journalist, has spent the past four years using her 7 p.m. slot to conduct in-depth interviews with politicians and newsmakers while tackling pressing political and social issues, particularly those at the intersections of race, culture, and justice.
In the coming weeks, rotating anchors will fill Reid’s hour, according to the staff memo. Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez—currently hosts of The Weekend on MSNBC—will later take over the 7 p.m. slot with a new ensemble news program.
Reid addressed her departure on social media, thanking supporters for their messages of encouragement.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone who has reached out with kindness and encouragement, both personally and in these social media streets,” she wrote in a post on BlueSky and Instagram, adding that she was “so very proud” of The ReidOut team.
On Sunday, she joined a live discussion with Win With Black Women on YouTube, revealing that Monday’s broadcast would be her final show. Reid shared that she had experienced a range of emotions—including anger and disappointment—but ultimately landed on gratitude.
“My show had value,” she said, reflecting on the topics her team covered daily. “Whether it was the Black Lives Matter issues … (or) talking about Gaza and the fact that we as the American people have … a right to object to little babies being bombed … I am not sorry that I stood up for those things.”
Reid’s impact on journalism has been widely recognized. Just this past weekend, she received two NAACP Image Awards—one for The ReidOut as an outstanding news series and another for outstanding literary work for her biography Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America.
Born to a Guyanese mother and a Congolese father, Reid has often spoken about how her Caribbean roots shaped her perspective. In a 2024 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, she shared that, with her father absent, she and her siblings grew up in a distinctly Caribbean household, an experience that influenced both her work and worldview, especially as it relates to race.
“My Caribbean cousins would come and stay with us every summer. And we were … sort of like our own,” she said. Reid also said that her mother, who died of breast cancer when she was 17, faced racism upon moving to America.
In 2020, Reid shared her support for the CROWN Act when Broward became the first in the state of Florida to ban racially-based hair discrimination.
While Joy Reid’s future plans remain unclear, her voice and presence in political media have left a lasting imprint.
