Prior to the show's announcement,
Melissa Harris-Perry had been appearing frequently as a political analyst on
MSNBC. She had also guest-hosted prime-time programs
The Rachel Maddow Show and ''
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell'' for the network. In January 2012, MSNBC announced that she would be hosting her own program as part of the network's weekend lineup. MSNBC president
Phil Griffin described an episode of
Maddow which she hosted in the summer of 2011 as "[p]henomenal honestly. Just jaw-dropping." She remarked that, professionally, she is a "professor first", and accepted the opportunity to host the program because it didn't require her to give up teaching. Nonetheless, she admitted that switching to the academic-broadcaster schedule "really did blow up [her] entire life." She said she took her position as host "very seriously", and hoped to emulate other national figures such as
Gwen Ifill and
Soledad O'Brien. On December 29, 2013, a picture was shown of former Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney and his extended family. Romney was holding his adopted African-American grandchild. Harris-Perry and her guests, including actress Pia Glenn and comedian
Dean Obeidallah, joked about coming up with captions for the photo. Glenn sang out, "
One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same." Obeidallah said, "It sums up the diversity of the Republican Party and the
Republican National Committee, where they have the whole convention and they find the one black person." Afterwards, Harris-Perry apologized in a series of Tweets and on msnbc.com, stating, "Without reservation or qualification, I apologize to the Romney family and to all families built on loving transracial adoptions". Romney replied, "I think it’s a heartfelt apology. I think for that reason, we hold no ill will whatsoever".
Cancellation On February 26, 2016, Harris-Perry sent an email to the staff of the TV show stating that she would not be returning to host the show that weekend and possibly for the foreseeable future. She wrote that she felt the executives at MSNBC were silencing her show due to the numerous
preemptions for special coverage of the 2016 presidential election and expressed frustration that she was being shut out of MSNBC's on-air coverage despite being highly qualified. She said that the show was scheduled to come back in its regular time slot, but there would be more time devoted to top news stories and breaking news rather than her team's own editorial content. Harris-Perry stated that she believed the only reason MSNBC was bringing the show back on air was due to people's comments on her notable absences. She wrote: On February 28, 2016, MSNBC announced that the show had been cancelled. ==Reception==