The Rev. Al Sharpton may soon be booted from his weeknight television host role on Politics Nation and relegated to the pile of less-watched weekend fare, one source within MSNBC’s ranks said, citing the need for the cable provider to bolster slagging audience numbers.
Company President Phil Griffin said that the outlet’s Republican-bashing days are pretty much over — and that as part of the image overhaul, it’s now being surmised that Mr. Sharpton’s show may move from its prime 6 p.m. Monday-through-Friday slot, the Daily Mail reported.
“Going left was a brilliant strategy while it lasted and made hundreds of millions of dollars for Comcast,” one MSNBC source told the Daily Beast. “But it doesn’t work anymore. The goal is to move away from left-wing TV.”
Mr. Sharpton’s show, which has run for more than three years, attracts a 35 percent black audience, the Daily Mail reported.
“Everybody in the [company] food chain, from top to bottom, understands that the [Keith] Olbermann era is over,” the source said, the Daily Mail reported.
Mr. Olbermann, an outspoken liberal news commentator, left MSNBC in 2011 to take a job with ESPN. The talk of Mr. Sharpton comes as the company canceled the afternoon shows of both Ronan Farrow and Joy-Ann Reid due to poor ratings.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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