Making sure that it draws as many viewers as possible to avoid cancellation, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow repeatedly hailed the launch of Joy Reid’s weekend show during her eponymous show Thursday night as a significant move for “one of the smartest, best-informed, and most acutely observant voices in any media” that’s truly “a blessing” for news consumers.
In introducing Reid for a segment discussing the 2016 election, Maddow congratulated her before inquiring about what the format of the unnamed show will be and Reid essentially described it as being what the now-departed Melissa Harris-Perry ran her show.
“We're going to really be very conversational, sort of the idea is to get great, smart people around the table...We want folks to talk about the really insane things that are happening in our country and in our politics and try to key code it a little bit,” Reid explained.
To cap off the one-minute-and-16-second detour, Maddow gushed over the MSNBC national correspondent as being “one of the smartest, best-informed, and most acutely observant voices in any media on this election this year” who’s “really just hit your stride in a way that you've become utterly indispensable.”
After the discussion came to a close, Maddow pleaded with her weeknight viewers to find time to watch Reid’s weekend morning program:
And if you are a Rachel Maddow Show viewer, let me implore you, I don't know if you usually get up and watch TV at 10:00 a.m. on a weekend, but this weekend, you should and if you absolutely can’t because you’ve got some reason why you can’t, you’ve got to record it because honestly, ask anybody who you know who you value their judgment about people who work in this business that I work in.
Bringing jack-all-trades personality Steve Kornacki into the equation as well, Maddow proclaimed that both have become “super powered” in their election-year opinions:
You're going to hear Steve Kornacki and you’re going to hear Joy Reid and the two of them were smart to begin with but something has happened and they're super powered this year. The fact that Joy's doing her regular thing with her own show every weekend on MSNBC, it's a blessing.
As my colleague Kyle Drennen outlined when the announcement was made, this is Reid’s second shot at having an MSNBC following her weekday afternoon show The Reid Report being cancelled in February 2015 thanks to pitiful ratings.
Nonetheless, Reid’s spent her time between programs still on MSNBC airwaves making a litany of outrageously liberal statements, ranging from her being “utterly bored” with Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal to Clinton being the most qualified presidential candidate “since the Founding Fathers” to suggesting the media’s been against her for decades.
It seems as though MSNBC was looking for someone to helm the weekend mornings with an identical format, but someone would tow the network line of being an ultra-liberal and not in the way that Harris-Perry was a radical academic.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on May 6 can be found below.
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
May 6, 2016
9:28 p.m. Eastern
RACHEL MADDOW: But I would like to ask our next guest what she takes of this — what her take is on this incredible Democratic confidence right now. Joining us now is the great joy Reid, MSNBC national correspondent and let's break the news, Joy, host of a brand-new show starting this weekend at MSNBC, 10:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Congratulations on that, Joy, it’s super exciting.
JOY REID: Thank you. Thank you, Rachel, I appreciate it. Thank you, my friend.
MADDOW: I'm super psyched, can you tell me about your plans for the show and how it's going to work?
REID: Well, it's all a big secret, of course. We're going to really be very conversational, sort of the idea is to get great, smart people around the table. You know, we're trying to lure one Rachel Maddow to come on and do something with us. I just really have to bribe those conversations. We can have these conversations. Wine? We can offer wine. We want folks to talk about the really insane things that are happening in our country and in our politics and try to key code it a little bit.
MADDOW: Well, you have been one of the smartest, best-informed, and most acutely observant voices in any media on this election this year. You’ve always been great and you know I've always been a fan. On this election, something's happened and you have really just hit your stride in a way that you've become utterly indispensable. So, I’m just super psyched that you are doing your show.
REID: Thank you. Thank you.
(....)
9:33 p.m. Eastern
MADDOW: Joy Reid, host of a brand new show starting this weekend on MSNBC 10:00 a.m. Joy, again, congratulations. Thanks
REID: Thank you, Rachel. Thank you so much.
MADDOW: And if you are a Rachel Maddow Show viewer, let me implore you, I don't know if you usually get up and watch TV at 10:00 a.m. on a weekend, but this weekend, you should and if you absolutely can’t because you’ve got some reason why you can’t, you’ve got to record it because honestly, ask anybody who you know who you value their judgment about people who work in this business that I work in. Ask them who is the smartest person that you've seen this year talking about the election. You're going to hear two names over and over again from anybody who's seen any election coverage on MSNBC this whole year. You’re going to hear two names. You're going to hear Steve Kornacki and you’re going to hear Joy Reid and the two of them were smart to begin with but something has happened and they're super powered this year. The fact that Joy's doing her regular thing with her own show every weekend on MSNBC, it's a blessing.
