Steve Kornacki Officially Parts Ways With MSNBC After More Than 10 Years With the Network
Steve Kornacki joined MSNBC in 2012 as a co-host of 'The Cycle.'
Published Nov. 5 2025, 10:34 a.m. ET
Political correspondent and anchor Steve Kornacki was with MSNBC for 13 years before he jumped ship and moved to NBC News, in place of his multiple roles at the network that he had held for quite a while. So when state-wide elections happened on Nov. 4, 2025, without Steve on MSNBC to explain the results with his big board, viewers were wondering why Steve left and what he has or hasn't said about it.
In October 2025, MSNBC announced plans to completely rebrand as MS NOW and move away from the NBCUniversal umbrella altogether. Instead, the network is part of a new media company called Versant. Because of Steve's decision to leave the network ahead of its rebrand and stick with NBC News, some wonder if he decided he didn't want to jump ship with some of his fellow longtime anchors.
Why did Steve Kornacki leave MSNBC?
USA Today reported in April 2025 that Steve planned to leave MSNBC and move to NBC News and NBC Sports instead of remaining in his multiple roles at the other network. Before Steve left MSNBC, he appeared on NBC News and MSNBC at different times, jumping from one network to the other depending on what he was covering, because they were, for a long time, part of NBCUniversal together.
Steve did not publicly share a statement about why he left MSNBC, but according to People, he signed a deal with NBCUniversal to remain part of NBC News networks. The details of that deal aren't clear, but clearly, it was lucrative enough to make him want to stay with NBCUniversal rather than move to MSNBC's rebranded network MS NOW.
Per People, Steve's deal with NBCUniversal says that he can work on other projects outside of his role as chief data analyst. He will also continue to give viewers politics and election coverage, as well as sports commentary on NBC News and NBC Sports. Though this move marks the end of Steve's time on MSNBC, he is still going to be working in television news, just on a different network.
Steve Kornacki once filmed a game show for NBC.
Maybe Steve took the job with NBCUniversal and left MSNBC, or MS NOW, because of the promise of someday hosting a game show. Well, probably not, but he did have aspirations once to host a game show on NBC, and in 2021, Deadline reported that Steve was, at the time, working on developing a game show using his knowledge of sports, politics, and statistics.
Cesar Conde, NBCUniversal News Group chairman, said, "Steve brings so much passion and genuine enthusiasm to his work, on top of his encyclopedic knowledge base, that it's just impossible as a viewer not to share his interest and excitement."
While that show did not, it seems, come to fruition, Cesar and NBCUniversal's faith in Steve was possibly an indicator of how valuable he is to the news team. It's entirely possible that, when it came time for him to choose between MS NOW and NBC, he was given an offer he couldn't refuse.