"Morning Joe" Hosts Express Disappointment and Seek Answers Following Show's Cancellation
Joe: "Next Time There's A News Feed We'll Be Behind The Desk Or They Can Find Someone Else To Host The Show"
On Tuesday morning's "Morning Joe," hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist discussed the show's cancellation on Monday following the assassination attempt on former President Trump. Shortly after 7, Scarborough revealed that they had been informed that "Morning Joe" would not air on Monday because MSNBC would be in Breaking News mode, with NBC News providing coverage of the shooting across all its platforms, including MSNBC and NBC News Now, throughout the day on Monday. However, Joe expressed surprise that this was not the case, as MSNBC resumed its regular programming later that morning.
Joe Said: “Before we start this hour. Willie, I just wanted to briefly talk to our friends and viewers that watch us every day and talk about what happened yesterday.” Scarborough opened up at 7 AM.”
“We were told, in no uncertain terms on a Sunday evening that there was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels yesterday, and today’s show would be Lester Holt. Other people that, well, you worked with on Sunday and that was going to be one news feed across all NBC news channels that we were going to stay as a network in breaking news mode throughout, all day yesterday.”
“That did not happen,” Scarborough correctly noted, as MSNBC eventually returned to its regular programming apart from special coverage of the Republican National Convention.”
“We don’t know why that was. That didn’t happen,” Scarborough noted before revealing he was not satisfied with any explanation he received from top NBC News executives. “Our team was not given a good answer as to why that didn’t happen, but it didn’t happen. We were also told it was going to happen throughout the day.”
“And I guess after there was such a strong blowback about, yesterday morning, I guess they changed their plans. And so those plans changed as well. So it didn’t,” he said. “And, you know, we’ve talked about it, off the air. We’ll talk about it on the air because we talk about everything on the air. We were very surprised. We were very disappointed. And if we had known that there wasn’t going to be the one news feed, from NBC news across all NBC news channels. Willie, we obviously would have been in yesterday morning.”
Co-host Willie Geist, who does not host the show on Mondays, stated that he was prepared to host the show on Monday but was disappointed when it was canceled.
Mika Brzezinski added that the show has honest and difficult conversations and was disappointed that they couldn't have those discussions on Monday.
Joe concluded the conversation by saying that he is still seeking answers as to why the show was taken off the air and that if there is breaking news and rolling coverage in the future, they will be behind the desk. If not, he implied that he would quit, saying "Next Time There's A News Feed We'll Be Behind The Desk Or They Can Find Someone Else To Host The Show"
As I reported on Monday, Scarborough was told about the shows cancellation on Sunday afternoon by Cesar Conde, the president of NBC News and Rashida Jones the president of MSNBC and was livid at the decision claiming that their absense makes them look partially responsible for the attack.
Also on Monday, MSNBC made a programming change by replacing "The Reid Out" with host Joy Reid with a special hosted by Rachel Maddow. The special took place at the Republican National Convention, where Reid was relegated to a panel role.