MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan announced during the final broadcast of his weekend program that he is leaving the network.
“As we begin 2024 with an election coming, a war still ongoing, and to many Trump trials to even keep track of, and with the show going away, I have decided for me to look for a new challenge,” he sad at towards the end of Sunday night’s show. “Tonight is not just my final episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show, it is my last day with MSNBC.”
He continued: “Yes, I have decided to leave. To be clear, I am so, so, so proud of what we have achieved on this show, on this network, and I can’t thank you enough for tuning in, and for your support. And for your feedback. As I say, new year, new plans.”
The Mehdi Hasan Show was shockingly canceled last November as part of a weekend programming overhaul by MSNBC. At the time, the network announced that Hasan would remain with MSNBC as an on-air analyst and fill-in host.
Hasan’s program wasn’t the only one impacted by the weekend schedule change. The revamped lineup, which will debut this month, features a new two-hour ensemble morning show hosted by Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. Meanwhile, programs hosted by Menendez, Sanders-Townsend and Yasmin Vossoughian were dropped alongside Hasan’s.
Going forward, anchor Ayman Mohyeldin’s Sunday night program will be expanded to two hours and absorb the hour previously filled by The Mehdi Hasan Show.
While the network has framed the cancellation of Hasan’s show as part of an overall programming shift, the decision immediately ignited a firestorm of criticism from progressives that MSNBC was punishing Hasan for his highly critical stance towards Israel’s military response in Gaza. The backlash only grew after the New York Post cited network sources who said his show was dropped due to a “sharp drop in ratings and uproar over his anti-Israel views.”
Additionally, prior to the network’s weekend shake-up, MSNBC took heat over a Semafor report claiming that it had sidelined its Muslim anchors—including Hasan—immediately following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. While the network vehemently denied the story and insisted they were instead focusing largely on breaking news coverage during the first days of the Gaza war, the suggestion that Hasan was benched over his pro-Palestinian views remained. (The other two Muslim anchors that were reportedly sidelined at the time kept their shows and even saw their roles expanded.)
Hasan, a former al-Jazeera presenter who has gained widespread praise for his tough and relentless interviewing style, spent the final few weeks of his MSNBC run thanking his fans on social media. At the same time, he also not-so-subtly pushed back on the notion that his show’s ratings were the reason for his cancellation, touting his viewership in relation to other MSNBC and CNN weekend offerings.
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