MSNBC has removed host Mehdi Hasan’s Sunday night show as part of a major weekend programming shift. “As we emerge from a multitude of historic events these past months, we have an opportunity to build on our accomplishments and keep the momentum going into 2024 and beyond,” said MSNBC President Rashida Jones in a Thursday memo obtained by Fox News. “Hasan will remain at the network, bringing his much-needed insight and expertise to MSNBC viewers as a Political Analyst and fill-in host.”Hasan will lose his MSNBC show and his Peacock streaming service one, but he will be staying at it. MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin will take over the program as he expands his weekend footprint. Known as one of the more pushy liberal media figures in cable news, Hasan joined MSNBC in 2020 after stints at Al Jazeera and the Intercept. His cancellation comes after inflammatory remarks he made in 2009 circulated online last weekend when they were unearthed by New York Post reporter Jon Levine, although it does not appear the two are related. He compared non-Muslims to animals and linked gay people to pedophiles and sexual deviants. In 2019, he apologized for these comments, calling them “dumb offensive ranty stuff.”He has been one of the strongest critics of Israel in the mainstream media during the Israel-Hamas War and is known for his strident social media commentary and clashes with conservatives and other political foes. When Levine resurfaced the comments, he said it is “hard to imagine MSNBC allowing someone on television who said similar things about a different religion.” MSNBC did not specify when asked if the resurfaced comments contributed to its decision. Jones focused on the positive aspects of the changes. MSNBC is not moving away from left-wing commentary. In another programming decision, it decided to launch a weekend morning show The Weekend, which will be hosted by former US President Joe Biden aide Symone Sanders-Townsend, US Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) daughter Alicia and former Republican chair Michael Steele. CNN and MSNBC continued to see their viewership decline in 2022. READ MORE: Fox News dominates US news with MSNBC and CNN rapidly losing viewersCNN averaged the lowest viewership with 511,000 daytime viewers and 545,000 prime-time viewers. MSNBC averaged 753,000 daytime viewers and one million prime-time viewers.Fox continued to dominate the American TV news market with 1.72 million viewers, which is more than the total of CNN and MSNBC combined.
