JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
MSNBC's main stars lined up last night to pay tribute to their colleague, Joy Reid. She thanked her fans for support over the life of her show.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOY REID: Thank you, thank you. Thank you for holding us down almost five years. We are a toddler, and we out in these streets in this world, and we are not going to stop.
SUMMERS: Reid's 7 p.m. daily show is now over, and the network has made a flurry of other programming changes in recent days. Some fans are concerned that the network is backing away from its liberal identity. NPR's David Folkenflik joins us now with the latest. Hi there.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So David, just start by telling us what is driving all of this change.
FOLKENFLIK: Well, let's say from the start, it's pretty common for network news - or cable news channels - excuse me - to redefine or refine at the start of any presidential administration how they approaches things. They often take it as a reset. This is a pretty big one, and there's a big corporate reason driving it. MSNBC is part of a new corporation involving some of its sister cable channels that have been spun off from NBC and its corporate parent at Comcast because there's concern over the future of cable and cable news in an era of slashing of the cord, right? And so what they're trying to do is figure out a fresh strategy, to figure out what their new budget looks like when they are cut apart from the mother ship over at NBC and its newsroom there.
SUMMERS: OK, a fresh strategy, a new budget. How is all of that playing out so far?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, you saw the question of Joy Reid. They looked at her ratings. They decided it was wanting - declined sharply, at least at the end of last year/beginning of this after the presidential election. They want to do better in that 7 p.m. slot. You similarly saw some other shows shaken up. You saw Alex Wagner. Her show - four times a week in primetime - is gone. She'll be a correspondent for the network. She's being replaced. So, you know, they've also are going to retool a bunch of the weekends. These are things that have gotten a lot of people very agitated who care a lot about MSNBC. And you're seeing a bit of a victory dance from pro-MAGA types.
SUMMERS: All right. I just want to tick through a couple of names of other anchors who have lost shows. They include Jonathan Capehart, Joy Reid, Katie Phang. These are all people of color. Reid, I will just note, has also been an outspoken critic of President Trump. Is there some concern here about a purge of anti-Trump liberals and people of color on the MSNBC staff?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, you're certainly seeing that concern online. Let's start, though, with people of color. Most people on the weekends, aside from Katie Phang, who will remain with the network as a correspondent on legal matters, they're sticking around. In fact, they're expanding two weekend shows for people - who are people of color. And they're taking one of the weekend shows that works and bringing them in to replace Joy Reid's show.
Why does that matter? You know, is that a question of anti-Trump liberals being purged? No, these folks are all vehemently anti-Trump. You have among them a former spokeswoman for Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders and a very anti-Trump former head of the RNC. These are figures that do that as well. When you think about other questions of liberals being purged, you know, you have Jen Psaki, Joe Biden's former White House press secretary. She's being the replacement for Alex Wagner over there at the 9 p.m. hour...
SUMMERS: Right.
FOLKENFLIK: ...During the weekdays.
SUMMERS: David, last thing, quickly, what other changes might we expect there?
FOLKENFLIK: So MSNBC may still have those last initials of NBC, but it has to chart this separate court. It's having to staff up for reporters. It's having to create its own Washington bureau. You're seeing them say, we have to be able to stand on our own feet when we leave the NBC fold formally at the end of this year.
SUMMERS: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thank you.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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