I told you earlier that MSNBC is considering ending “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell. Well, @Lawrence is not on his show tonight. Ari Melber is subbing in as host.
O’Donnell is said to be at loggerheads with MSNBC and NBC News over the renewal of his contract. According to sources, until today no one from the network has made any overture toward O’Donnell. His contract expires in a couple of weeks.
Insiders say O’Donnell had pretty much given up the idea of staying with MSNBC. A story in the HuffingtonPost and then my confirmation that he was essentially outta there may have spurred a Variety story this afternoon. That one said the network wanted him to stay and was negotiating. But that may also have come after my story spurred an avalanche of support for O’Donnell from viewers. They’ve been Tweeting like crazy and calling Phil Griffith’s office at NBC.
Let’s hope it works out. We have two few level headed commentators at this point. At clearly O’Donnell has the ratings.
