Ari Melber Vanishes for Entire Show Due to ‘Technical Difficulty’

MSNBC’s Ari Melber was nowhere to be found on Monday’s edition of his show, The Beat, even though it appeared he was expected to host.

When the 6 p.m. hour began, viewers were greeted by Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace instead of Melber.

“We bought ourselves an extra minute to finish this conversation while they ready Ari, who’s having a little bit of technical difficulty, but will be here any moment,” she said.

That “extra minute” of Deadline turned into an extra 27 for Wallace, who continued hosting her show while bringing on the guests who had been scheduled to talk to Melber.

“Thank you for being with me,” she told a pair of guests before signing off. “I know you were expecting Ari, but thank you for being good sports. And thanks to all of you at home for sticking around with me a little longer than usual on this busy news day. Here’s what’s gonna happen next: I promise, we got you. We have to fit in a quick break and you’re in for a treat. The one and only Ali Velshi will pick up our coverage live from Ukraine where everything happened today.”

After the break, Velshi took over from Kyiv, where it was 1:30 a.m.

“Welcome to The Beat,” he said, before discussing President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine, which has been under Russian military assault for nearly a year. Later in the show, one guest accidentally called Velshi “Ari” before quickly correcting herself.

After this story was published, a source at MSNBC told Mediaite a camera problem was to blame.

“There were technical issues with a remote camera that were unable to be quickly resolved,” the source said.

Watch above via MSNBC.