Veteran journalist Andrea Mitchell will give up her daytime MSNBC program after the presidential inauguration in January, the network announced Tuesday.
Mitchell, who turns 78 this week, will remain with NBC News as chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent reporting across the division’s programs on the broadcast network, MSNBC and streaming channel NBC News Now. She told viewers at the end of her program “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that the move away from daily anchoring was her choice.
“And after 16 years of being in the anchor chair every day, I want time to do more of what I love the most,” Mitchell said at the end of her program. “More connecting, listening and reporting in the field, especially as whoever is elected next week is going to undertake the monumental task of handling two foreign wars and the political divisions here at home.
In a memo to staff, NBC News leadership said Mitchell’s “deep sourcing and ability to land the biggest-name news-making interviews are unmatched.”
“Her contributions to NBC News over the last 46 years have been invaluable to the network, and we are so pleased that she will remain an essential part of the News Group for years to come,” the memo said.
“Andrea Mitchell Reports” was launched in 2008 when NBC News was adding more of the network’s big names to the channel’s program lineup.
Mitchell’s even-handed approach to Washington politics has fallen out of favor with some MSNBC viewers who have increasingly turned to the progressive-leaning network for critical coverage of former President Trump. Chuck Todd, whose program “Meet the Press Daily” was moved off of MSNBC in 2022, was also subjected to hostile comments on social media.
Mitchell joined NBC News in 1978 to cover energy at a time when the Iranian Revolution disrupted the world’s oil markets. She moved into politics in 1980, covering every presidential election ever since. Her work as a foreign correspondent has taken her to North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, the West Bank, Ukraine, Bosnia, Kosovo, Pakistan, Haiti, Sudan and Japan.
Mitchell started her career in 1976 at an all-news radio station in Philadelphia. She was given an overnight shift to avoid disrupting a newsroom that was still an all-male domain.
Mitchell soon joined he generation of women journalists who broke through as network news stars in the 1970s, which included Lesley Stahl, Connie Chung, Judy Woodruff and Carole Simpson.