CNN reported that MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry likely will not return to her show on the network after she voiced frustration that she did not have enough editorial control, citing two anonymous sources.
The sources told CNN that it’s “highly unlikely” that Harris-Perry will appear on her show again after skipping it this weekend. Her contract with the network is up in October, according to CNN.
Harris-Perry said on Friday that she would not host her show this weekend because she felt “betrayed” by executives at MSNBC.
“Our show was taken—without comment or discussion or notice—in the midst of an election season,” Harris-Perry wrote in an email to her colleagues at the network. “After four years of building an audience, developing a brand and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced.”
A spokesman for the network told the New York Times that Perry’s email and decision to boycott her show was “surprising, confusing and disappointing.”
“In this exciting and unpredictable presidential primary season, many of our daytime programs have been temporarily upended by breaking political coverage, including M.H.P.” the spokesman said.
A source told CNN that Harris-Perry wanted to cover Beyoncé’s new video “Formation” in February, but that network executives wanted her to cover the presidential race instead.
“Her executive producer had to fight for it,” the source told CNN.
Harris-Perry told CNN that she had numerous disagreements with the network about coverage on her show.
“I am so moved by, and humbled by, the response of not just my audience but people who weren’t even my audience. It’s very powerful and meaningful,” she told CNN. “But I’m also not looking to put myself at the center of some sort of civil rights narrative. I just wanted to be able to speak. I wanted to tell people what was going on.”
