'Morning Joe' Whines Over Monday No Show

UPDATE 10 AM TUESDAY 7/16: On Tuesday, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts railed against a decision by network leadership to preempt morning program on Monday, the first day of the Republican National Convention and just days after an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. 

The left-leaning cable news network did not air “Morning Joe” on Monday, instead simulcasting one breaking news feed to all platforms including MSNBC, NBC News, and NBC News NOW. 

According to The Wrap, Joe Scarborough said on air on Tuesday that he and his team were “very surprised, very disappointed,” in the decision to take them off the air. 

“We were told in no uncertain terms on Sunday night that there was going to be one news feed against all channels,” Scarborough said. “I guess after there was such strong blowback about what happened yesterday morning that they changed their plans.”

.@Morning_Joe is a lil upset they were pulled yesterday 😂

They are going to quit and take their ball home if it happens again 🤣pic.twitter.com/Jv3waLXIdz

— Spitfire (@DogRightGirl) July 16, 2024

The hosts and production team of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" were "shocked" on Monday by the circumstances of their show's benching in the aftermath of the stunning assassination attempt on former President Trump, Fox News Digital has learned.

An MSNBC insider said the show's production team was informed by network leadership Cesar Conde – the chair of NBCUniversal News Group – and Rashida Jones – the president of left-leaning cable affiliate MSNBC – that all MSNBC programming on Monday would be supplanted until primetime by a single NBC News programming feed, which would presumably air across all NBC platforms. Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were also told.

However, a new episode of "Today" on parent network NBC aired as scheduled on Monday morning with Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. Those who tuned into MSNBC, NBC's left-leaning cable affiliate, at 6 a.m. to watch "Morning Joe" were greeted with NBC News special reporting from Ana Cabrera and then coverage simulcasting from its streaming service, NBC News Now. The "Morning Joe" X account announced the show would return on Tuesday.

"A lot of people are pissed off," the insider told Fox News Digital. They added Scarborough and Brzezinski would have insisted on going on the air if they'd known there wouldn't be "one feed" for all platforms, as they'd originally been told.

MSNBC's regular weekend programming and hosts were interrupted, as expected, Saturday and Sunday in favor of NBC News special coverage of the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, which wounded Trump and killed one of his supporters.

After three hours of programming hosted by Cabrera and NBC News Now, José Diaz-Balart began hosting for MSNBC at 9 a.m., and the show's "NBC News Special Report" chyron disappeared in favor of "MSNBC Reports." MSNBC hosts Andrea Mitchell and Chris Jansing did their normal shows at 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. ET. Left-wing MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace took over live coverage of the Republican National Convention coverage at 4 p.m. ET.

As news broke that "Morning Joe" wasn't on the air on Monday morning, observers wondered why MSNBC's flagship AM show was off the air at such a significant time. A CNN report stated a source familiar with the decision said there were worries a guest might make an inappropriate remark about the attempt on Trump's life; a network spokesman strongly denied that report to Fox News Digital.