MSNBC cancels Mehdi Hasan’s weekend show amid poor ratings, anti-Israel views: sources
MSNBC pulled the plug on lightning-rod anchor Mehdi Hasan’s weekend prime-time talk show as part of a wider shakeup Thursday, with sources citing a sharp drop in ratings and uproar over his anti-Israel views.
A source close to the left-leaning cable channel said the network is “cutting costs like crazy” and that the penny-pinching was a “good excuse” to dump the British-born commentator.
“I think they thought (Hasan’s) point of view was a little too out of the mainstream if you know what I mean,” a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post.
MSNBC boss Rashida Jones on Thursday painted an entirely different reason for the decision, saying it was part of a plan to revamp the weekend lineup ahead of next year’s presidential election.
“As Decision 2024 ramps up, the show will provide thoughtful analysis and coverage on the state of our country from three trusted voices familiar to the MSNBC audience,” MSNBC President Rashida Jones told staffers in a memo.
Now, Hasan will serve as an on-camera analyst and fill-in host across MSNBC and Peacock, according to the online news site Semafor, which was the first to report the move.
MSNBC’s weekend lineup will now include a two-hour morning program titled “The Weekend” featuring Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Michael Steele.
MSNBC is “refocusing weekend efforts on the morning where they make more money,” the source added.
The new show will air from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. beginning Jan. 13.
A rep for MSNBC declined to comment on Thursday.
Along with fellow anchors Ali Veshi and Ayman Mohyeldin, Hasan was lambasted for commentary in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ deadly terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7.
The network denied a Semafor report last month that it muzzled Hasan, Mohyeldin and Velshi due to their purported pro-Palestine viewpoints.
Hasan has hosted the “The Mehdi Hasan Show” on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. since being hired by MSNBC in 2021 after spending years at Qatar-backed Al Jazeera English along with left-leaning publication The Intercept.
He also pushed the narrative that Israel was responsible for the deadly strike on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza and suggested that Israel’s incursion into Gaza should be compared to Russia invading Ukraine.
On Nov. 16, Hasan got into a tense on-air spat with Israeli government adviser Mark Regev, who pushed back on the MSNBC host after he argued that Israel rejected a deal that would have seen hostages released before its retaliatory military strikes in Gaza.
Hasan’s ratings, meanwhile, have been steadily declining over the past two months, according to Nielsen.
He averaged 617,000 viewers for his show on Oct. 1, the last one before the Hamas massacre six days later — when terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border using paragliders and pickup trucks and slaughtered some 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Since then, Hasan’s show has failed to garner more than 500,000 viewers. On Nov. 12, it hit a low point with just 37,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic and 411,000 total — well behind his rivals at Fox and CNN, according to Nielsen.
MSNBC will hand over the 8 p.m. time slot to Mohyeldin, whose 7 p.m. show will expand to two hours, the network said.
When asked about giving more time to Mohyeldin, the source said MSNBC has been happier with him lately because “he’s been playing ball.”
Velshi, MSNBC’s third prominent anchor of Muslim extraction, will now host a two-hour talk show on both Saturday and Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
He remains “on the hot seat” after he “went off the rails on Oct. 7,” according to the source.
Earlier this year, Hasan was accused of plagiarizing a column he wrote in favor of child spanking more than two decades ago.
Hasan has also apologized for past remarks comparing non-Muslims to “animals” and for linking homosexuals to “pedophiles” and “sexual deviants.”
