Tonight is not just my final episode of The Mehdi Hassan Show.
It's my last day with MSNBC. Yes, I've decided to leave.
MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan signed off on the final episode
of his Sunday evening program, The Mehdi Hasan Show, by announcing
that he is leaving MSNBC entirely.
Here's more from his announcement.
It's been an absolute blast doing this live show on MSNBC for the past
three years, with an amazing team of producers behind me, and with all of you
watching at home, it's been a privilege.
It's been a pleasure.
But as we begin 2024 with an election coming, a war still ongoing
and too many Trump trials honestly, to even keep track of.
And with this show going away, I've decided that it's time for me
to look for a new challenge.
Tonight is not just my final episode of The Mehdi Hassan Show.
It's my last day with MSNBC. Yes, I've decided to leave.
To be clear, I am so proud.
So, so proud of what we've achieved on this show, on this network.
And I can't thank you all enough for tuning in and for your support
and for your feedback.
But as I say, New year, new plans.
You can continue to follow me online at Mehdi Hassan, on Instagram, on threads
and of course, Twitter or X. We'll give you updates on what's coming next for me.
For now from me for one last time on this network.
Good night.
Now, as we shared with you back in November, MSNBC announced the cancellation
of his Sunday night program as part of a major weekend overhaul at the network.
They did not intend to let him go or fire him.
They just did away with his show, and they were planning to use him
as an on camera analyst and fill in host.
And then they also have this new ensemble program called The Weekend
airing on weekend mornings, which will take effect on January 13th.
Now, obviously, this led to a lot of speculation
about why they decided to cancel his show.
Mehdi Hasan happened to be the most aggressive
in reporting about the war in Gaza.
He was far more challenging than other hosts on the network in regard
to Israeli politicians coming on, or spokespeople coming on to share their
perspective on the ongoing war in Gaza.
And so many thought, well, they're doing away with him
because they don't like his style.
And to be fair, MSNBC does have a history of reprimanding hosts
who are far too aggressive in criticizing various politicians and figures
that they favor, including Cenk Uygur.
So, Jeong, do you want to jump in?
Yeah. So it's easy for me to say, oh.
He left because, MSNBC took off, took the Muslim hosts off the air
in the beginning of the Gaza conflict.
And, they just, you know, he's the only progressive on MSNBC.
That's why I said it.
But the reality is, I don't know why he's leaving.
So it could be that he loathes them. It could be that.
No, he's, perfectly good relationship with them.
But he got a new job and a one that he prefers somewhere else.
And we're going to find out in a week about that.
And it could be that, something in the middle where he, you know, didn't have
anything, terrible thing to say about him, but he felt constrained,
and he didn't want to feel constrained.
Right.
So I don't know, because I can't read his mind and I. And he didn't say.
Right.
And what he's doing here is, what is considered professional, which is
you leave without burning the place down.
Sometimes there's a good reason to burn the place down
when they're doing something wrong.
Right. And oftentimes there isn't.
So in this case, he's being more professional.
It is.
And so good credit to him. I guess depending on the situation.
And the situation with MSNBC is complicated because they have three
Muslim hosts versus almost no Muslim hosts on anywhere else on cable news.
Yes, they did take them off during the conflict in the beginning.
But, one of the other hosts is picking up an hour from, Mehdi Hasan.
You know, his ratings were kind of in the middle.
So I don't know if that was the driving factor.
- It's a weekend. - Show.
- Hard to know. - Yeah, it's a weekend show on MSNBC.
So like. I don't know.
Yeah, I'm sure there are some people who are sitting around watching cable
news on the weekends, but usually you have lower ratings on weekend shows.
- Oh, 100%. - Right.
And the other thing that I'll just quickly say is that, look, Mehdi Hasan, going from
having his own show to being a fill in host, I'm sure didn't sit well with him.
Oh, that's true too, right?
So I would want to quit if a network did that with me.
And so I'm speculating, but I would speculate that that might be the reason.
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