(UPDATED) To Absolutely No One’s Surprise, MSNBC Ends Saturday Night Politics With Donny Deutsch
MSNBC’s Saturday Night Politics with Donny Deutsch has ended after airing just 13 episodes.
Deutsch, an ad exec turned political commentator, led the show on 8 p.m. Saturday nights which launched on May 4. It didn’t even last the entire summer of 2019, with Adweek reporting that MSNBC cancelled the show following its August 17 episode.
The network will fill the now open 8 o’clock hour on Saturday with reruns of All In with Chris Hayes. MSNBC has very few original programs regularly airing on weekend nights, with the exception of Kasie DC anchored by Kasie Hunt on Sunday nights and various news documentary series.
According to Adweek, the series premiere of Saturday Night Politics averaged 919,000 total viewers, while the second episode hit 898,000. It saw a loss in viewership as it went on through the summer.
The series did have one notable viewer at least at one point: President Donald Trump. On a Saturday in June, Trump went on a rant attacking Deutsch and CNN’s Erin Burnett. Trump also claimed him and Deutsch were never friends.
Little @DonnyDeutsch, whose show, like his previous shoebiz tries, is a disaster, has been saying that I had been a friend of his. This is false. He, & separately @ErinBurnett, used to BEG me to be on episodes of the Apprentice (both were bad), but that was it. Hardly knew him,..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2019
Deutsch later jokingly thanked Trump for watching his show during an appearance on Hardball with Chris Matthews the following week.
Deutsch will still appear on MSNBC programs like Morning Joe, where he is a frequent guest and commentator.
UPDATED: MSNBC says the show has ended following a scheduled run.
Deutsch said in a tweet that “with summer coming to a close, so does my season run. I’m beyond grateful for all of your help in making it MSNBC’s highest rated Saturday night program EVER!”
With summer coming to a close, so does my season run on MSNBC w/ @SNPonMSNBC. I’m beyond grateful for all of your help in making it @MSNBC ’s highest rated Saturday night program EVER! So surreal! I’ll see you all on @Morning_Joe @DeadlineWH, and across MSNBC very soon.
— Donny Deutsch (@DonnyDeutsch) August 29, 2019
[Image via screengrab]
