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MS Doom

Spirits are uncharacteristically high at the post-spinoff MS NOW, but this is still a late-stage linear operation that’s shedding (mostly geriatric) viewers at a steady clip. Despite Versant’s money and Rebecca Kutler’s ambitions, is it just a matter of time before the realities of cable’s decline drag them under?

Mark Lazarus
For months, Kutler and her boss, Versant C.E.O. Mark Lazarus, have sold the cable spin as the dawn of the network’s golden age—noting that MSNBC can now invest its $500 million-plus annual profits back into itself, funding new digital products and live experiences—and the staff mostly seems to have chugged that Kool Aid. Ralph Bavaro/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Dylan Byers
November 5, 2025

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On Wednesday morning, MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler treated around 15 media reporters to a tour of the network’s new studios at the old New York Times building on ​​West 43rd Street. The trade press event, which featured a several-tables-long charcuterie display and summit-style interviews with Joe and Mika, Jen Psaki, Stephanie Ruhle, and Michael Steele, was part of a broader messaging effort for the impending MS NOW rebrand necessitated by NBCUniversal’s spinoff of its cable channels. Versant, the new parentco, has also unveiled a $20 million ad campaign to preempt any confusion around the name change. In one spot, Rachel Maddow reads the preamble to the Constitution; another features Maya Angelou reciting a poem at the U.N.