Mehdi Hasan announces departure from MSNBC
Mehdi Hasan; American Bazaar photo by E.K. Bala Chandran
Indian American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan says he would be leaving MSNBC entirely after the network announced plans to cancel his late-night opinion show last year.
“I’ve decided that it’s time for me to look for a new challenge,” he said during his final episode Sunday night. “Tonight is not just my final episode of ‘The Mehdi Hasan Show.’ It’s my last day with MSNBC. Yes, I’ve decided to leave.”
MSNBC told staff in November that Hasan’s Sunday night opinion show would be canceled as part of a broader shake-up of its weekend programming. His slot will be taken over by a second hour of Ayman Mohyeldin’s show, according to the Hill.
READ: MSNBC and Peakcock cancel Mehdi Hasan Show (November 30, 2023)
Hasan, 44, had previously planned to remain with the network as an on-camera analyst and fill-in host after his show was canceled. But during his last show on Sunday, he said that he is pursuing a new path.
“It’s been an absolute blast during this live show on MSNBC for the past three years with an amazing team of producers behind me,” he said.
Some personal news: I've decided to leave MSBNC.
New year, new plans, new challenges:pic.twitter.com/A4ArRYk9d2
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 8, 2024
“And with all of you watching at home, it’s been a privilege. It’s been a pleasure. But as we begin 2024 with an election coming, a war still ongoing and too many Trump trials honestly to even keep track of, and with this show going away, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to look for a new challenge.”
Hasan presented The Mehdi Hasan Show on Peacock since October 2020 and on MSNBC from February 2021
Born in Swindon, England to immigrant Indian Hyderabadi Shia Muslim parents from the city of Hyderabad, India, Hasan began his television career as a researcher and then producer on ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby program.
Following a stint on the BBC’s The Politics Show he became deputy executive producer on Sky’s breakfast show Sunrise before moving to Channel 4 as their editor of news and current affairs.
In 2009 he was appointed senior editor for politics at the New Statesman. In 2012 he became a presenter on Al Jazeera’s English news channel, and in 2015 moved to Washington, DC to work full-time for Al Jazeera on UpFront and host the Deconstructed podcast produced by the online publication The Intercept from 2018 to 2020.
Hasan is the author of Win Every Argument, and the co-author of a biography of former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. He was formerly the political editor of the UK edition of The Huffington Post and the presenter of the Al Jazeera English shows: The Café, Head to Head and UpFront.
