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While everyone loves to celebrate a TV show's renewal, cancellations are never easy announcements to make. So it was extremely noteworthy and startling when MSNBC's Hugh Hewitt announced on the air that his Hugh Hewitt series was abruptly ending after that episode's conclusion. He isn't done with MSNBC, though. Here's how Hewitt worded it in the installment's final moments:
It's been great fun to bring interviews with high-profile newsmakers to you and I will do more of it. And this brings me to an important programming note: this has been the last Hugh Hewitt show on MSNBC on Saturday mornings. I'm remaining on the network as a contributor. I'll appear as a guest on MSNBC shows, and I will continue as a guest on Meet the Press. And I will conduct more of these one-on-one interviews. It's been great fun to host this show, and I will see you on MSNBC again soon. Thank you for watching.
When it comes to final episode shockers, Hugh Hewitt took his weekend series into the upper echelon with the likes of Lost and The Sopranos, and his sendoff was as cordial as it was surprising. The 30-minute Hugh Hewitt was one of MSNBC's newer weekly series, having debuted in the Saturday morning time slot on June 24, 2017. It never completely caught on with viewers in the way the network presumably hoped it would, and the lower ratings likely led to its cancellation.
With interviews and features focusing on current events, Hewitt's show was one of the relatively few conservative-leaning programs on the more liberal MSNBC, which possibly played a role in the viewership numbers. MSNBC has seen higher ratings in the past couple of years, helping its standing against rival cable networks CNN and Fox News, though the latter still conquers all in the long run. Saturday morning audiences may not be so important to most channels, but for news outlets that cater to the early risers with the older-skewing age demographics, every half-hour counts.
Despite cancelling his show, it's obvious that MSNBC didn't want to sever all ties with Hugh Hewitt, a big supporter of President Donald Trump and his policies. The network seemed to be sharing cancellation responsibilities in giving a statement to THR that said "MSNBC and Hugh Hewitt have decided to end Hewitt's Saturday show." It was also noted he'll remain a recurring contributor across all platforms. As Hewitt himself stated, that means he'll still be around for Meet the Press, where he has shown up regularly since 2015, as well as on that show's offshoot MTP Daily.
Hugh Hewitt was at the center of an arguably troublesome situation in May when it was revealed he had brokered a meeting between current EPA chief Scott Pruitt and a group of lawyers who successfully lobbied for the agency to take quick action with a California location the lawyers represented. Hewitt, who has also been an outspoken supporter of Pruitt since he took over the EPA, works for the same firm as the lawyers in question, potentially making the meeting a conflict of interests. After the reports came out, Hewitt was said to have been given a verbal warning by MSNBC for violating network standards, and he was made to stop speaking about EPA issues on the network.
You can watch Hugh Hewitt's sudden farewell below.
It's unclear at this point how MSNBC will be handling the schedule change in Hugh Hewitt's absence, but the network will likely address the issue sooner rather than later. While waiting to see how it shakes out, head to our summer premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows on the way.