Greta Van Susteren is reportedly in arbitration with NBC News nearly two years after she left the company, and its politics-focused cable channel MSNBC.
According to HuffPost reporter Yashar Ali, Van Susteren, who’s a lawyer, has approached NBC News with the claim that her former MSNBC show For the Record with Greta, “didn’t get sufficient backing from the network and didn’t have a chance to succeed.” Ali said he’s also been told one of the things Van Susteren brought up in her claim “are examples of other talent getting sufficient promotional support for their programs.”
The veteran cable newser left MSNBC in June 2017, fewer than six months after arriving at the network as host of For the Record with Greta. The show launched on Jan. 9, 2017 and aired in MSNBC’s 6 p.m. timeslot for the duration of that time.
The network built a new studio at 400 N. Capitol for Van Susteren’s show, a building which is also home to Fox News’s D.C. operations. Chuck Todd and Chris Matthews host their shows from NBC’s bureau on Nebraska Ave.
Van Susteren had at least one big fan at the network during her stint there. Rachel Maddow had Van Susteren on her show on Jan. 5, 2017, four days before the launch of For the Record, and gave her a glowing introduction.
“Greta Van Susteren is great,” Maddow remarked before introducing her. “She is, and she has an uncanny ability to make newsworthy things happen when a red light is on the camera and she is on the news. She can get anyone to talk to her, she has reported from all over the world. She had a decade at CNN, 14 years at Fox. She’s also, outside this building, one of the single most decent and genuine and honorable people I have ever come across in this business.”
Van Susteren, who checked in remotely, responded: “I think that the MSNBC audience is going to like me. I hope the Fox audience comes over here,” she told Maddow. “I want to do a good job for MSNBC. I want to do a good job so you’re proud of me, my colleagues are proud of me and most of all I want to do a good job for the viewers.”
For the Record with Greta didn’t seem to resonate with the network’s mostly progressive evening audience, and failed to maintain its 5 p.m. lead-in, MTP Daily. It also appeared her Fox News fans didn’t seem interested in following one of their most popular personalities over to MSNBC.
Prior to MSNBC, Van Susteren was host of On the Record with Greta Van Susteren on the Fox News Channel for more than 14 years. She left FNC in Sept. 2016, when a window in her contract allowed her to leave.
We reached out to Van Susteren regarding this report, but have yet to hear back as of publication time. MSNBC declined comment.
Van Susteren is currently more than keeping busy since leaving MSNBC. She joined local broadcast company Gray Television as a national political analyst back in February, and has two nationally syndicated shows in development with Gray. She’s also host Plugged in with Greta Van Susteren on Voice of America, a news service which broadcasts exclusively outside the U.S.