MSNBC parts ways with weekend host Tiffany Cross
MSNBC announced that weekend anchor Tiffany Cross will depart the once-leaderless cable news network to become chief executive of Viacom’s MTV. Cross will continue “weekend” hosting on MSNBC as a correspondent.
In a letter to staff, MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin said of Cross and her decision to leave, “I am confident that she will be a great addition to our team at MSNBC.”
The network has been struggling for attention and ratings. Cross has worked for MSNBC for 13 years. She is perhaps best known for her role as an on-air guest with comedian Bill Maher, who asked her to explain for the last time why she had turned down an offer to appear on his show, “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
That was in 2007.
“It has been an honor to call MSNBC my home for 13 years,” Cross said in a statement. “It has been an amazing opportunity to work with everyone at this company and to watch our beloved city evolve since I started at the network in 2003. I am so proud to have been a part of this journey as the first female news anchor of a major news network.”
MSNBC’s ratings have been slipping amid an increasingly competitive landscape for cable news, with CNN and Fox News doing well in most demographic categories.
Cross was well into her 20s when she earned her first news job in Chicago as a reporter for WLS-TV, a station part of the Tribune Company. She later moved to her hometown of Chicago and quickly became an anchor with WGN.
During her time with WGN, Cross established herself as one of the most charismatic and energetic anchor personalities on television. She also developed a reputation for being quick with her jokes and wisecracks.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Cross won three Emmys as a reporter for WGN-TV. She won a second Emmy for her as an anchor in 2006 and another for her on-air reporting in 2008. CNN announced that Cross and Fox News anchor Bill O