MSNBC Cancels Two Shows on Peacock in Reported Shake-Up of the Streaming Service

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Zerlina Maxwell and Ayman Mohyeldin lost their Peacock streaming shows this week amid “programming changes to the MSNBC hub on Peacock,” confirmed MSNBC.  Variety reported the announcement as a “streaming shake-up at MSNBC.”

Both Maxwell and Mohyeldin will keep their current roles on MSNBC and the changes to Peacock will officially take effect in September.

The question of how cable news networks will differentiate their streaming content from their cable content has long puzzled the industry as the two products often require different subscriptions.

Streaming services in general are struggling to both retain and attract new subscribers in the very competitive marketplace. Netflix, for example, announced in July it had lost almost 1 million subscribers since April and was just surpassed by Disney in total subscribers this week.

CNN’s streaming service fell victim to competition and a merger in the Spring as CNN+ was killed just a month after its launch and a $300 million investment.

While reports of the cancellations did not include information on what new content may be coming to Peacock, Maxwell is set to remain on MSNBC as an analyst and Mohyeldin will keep his prime time weekend program and “continue to serve as a fill-in host for weekday prime time.”

Maxwell, a Democratic activist and former campaign aide to Hillary Clinton, joined MSNBC in 2018 and began hosting her own daily new show on Peacock in October of 2020, called Zerlina.

“In March, MSNBC articulated a plan to make some of its best-known opinion programs from cable available to premium tier customers of the Peacock streaming service, along with specials with top hosts including Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Chris Hayes, Trymaine Lee, and others,” Variety noted, adding some additional context to the direction Peacock may be headed.

Former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is slated to join Peacock with her own show in the fall.

“I can’t wait to create a space on streaming where we break down the facts, get to the bottom of what’s driving the issues, and hopefully have some fun along the way,” Psaki said in a statement in May.

Meanwhile, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch announced on Wednesday that Fox’s streaming service, Fox Nation, saw an 80% increase in subscribers in the last quarter – a stunning number from any streaming service. Murdoch, however, did not offer any specific numbers.

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