Steve Kornacki Leaving MSNBC, Joining NBC’s News and Sports

MSNBC‘s chief numbers guy, Steve Kornacki, whose analytics have become a mainstay at the network on election nights, is leaving the network after more than a decade.

The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Kornacki will still be a key figure in the NBC News world, contributing to Meet the Press as well as NBC Nightly News, Today, and the NBC News Now streaming service. However, he will not continue on as a regular MSNBC contributor. He will instead move to NBC Sports as the network’s chief data analyst, where he will cover events like NFL football, the Olympics, the Kentucky Derby, and other major sporting events.

Shannon Finney / NBC

Kornacki’s switcheroo comes as MSNBC is looking to build out a new news operation ahead of the SpinCo spinoff, which is supposed to take effect later this year. MSNBC will also launch its new lineup this month under the newly launched senior VP, Scott Matthews.

Kornacki first joined MSNBC in 2012 when he hosted The Cycle with Krystal Ball, Toure Neblett, and S.E. Cupp. He then anchored Up starting in 2013 and began his famous stint manning the “magic wall”-style election map in 2014. He has also frequently appeared on shows like MSNBC Live, All in With Chris Hayes, The Rachel Maddow Show, and, during election cycles, even Morning Joe.

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The journalist began providing sports analytics to NBC Sports in 2020, providing AFC and NFC postseason analysis with his signature interactive board techniques and khaki pants, to high praise.

Kornacki is not the only correspondent to pull a switcheroo on the network recently. Catherine Rampell joined MSNBC‘s The Weekend on the evening roundtable program alongside Ayman Moyehldin, and a third, yet-to-be-named anchor. She was a Washington Post opinion columnist and regularly appeared on CNN as an economics and politics commentator, as well as other news programs. Jackie Alemany, also from the Washington Post, joined the morning weekend program.

Joy Reid and Alex Wagner were also let go. The majority of the team on Rachel Maddow‘s prime-time news show is also set to be let go from the network.

Because Kornacki is being hired as a contributor and not a staff member, he will also seek roles outside of NBC not related to news and sports, according to Variety.

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