Andrea Mitchell is leaving the MSNBC anchor desk but will remain with NBC News

On October 30, 2024By Littum

Veteran journalist Andrea Mitchell will leave her MSNBC daytime 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 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 to have time to do more of what I love most,” Mitchell said at the end of his program. “More connecting, listening and reporting in the field, especially as whoever is elected next week must take on the monumental task of managing two foreign wars and the political divisions at home.

In a memo to staff, NBC News management said Mitchell’s “deep buy and ability to land the biggest news-making interviews is unmatched.”

“Her contributions to NBC News over the past 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.

The “Andrea Mitchell Reports” launched in 2008, when NBC News added several of the network’s big names to the channel’s programming lineup.

Mitchell’s no-nonsense approach to Washington politics has fallen out of favor with some MSNBC viewers, who have increasingly turned to the progressive network for critical coverage of former President Trump. Chuck Todd, whose show “Meet the Press Daily” was moved from MSNBC in 2022, also faced hostile comments on social media.

Andrea Mitchell interviewed Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2001.

Mitchell joined NBC News in 1978 to cover energy at a time when the Iranian revolution was disrupting world oil markets. She moved into politics in 1980 and has covered every presidential election 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 began his career in 1976 at a news radio station in Philadelphia. She was given a night shift to avoid disturbing a newsroom that was still a male domain.

Mitchell quickly joined the generation of female journalists who broke through as network news stars in the 1970s, which included Lesley Stahl, Connie Chung, Judy Woodruff and Carole Simpson.