The future of Bloomberg TV’s With All Due Respect may be in doubt after remarks by the company’s billionaire founder, Michael Bloomberg, who anticipates hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann will exit Bloomberg Politics after the election to write a book on the historic 2016 campaign.
The Huffington Post reports Michael Bloomberg told staffers at the company’s Washington bureau Thursday the two managing editors would likely leave the company.
A Bloomberg spokeswoman said only that With All Due Respect remains “a valuable part of our lineup. We’re very pleased with the show’s performance and the great work Mark and John are doing throughout this election.”
Bloomberg is already losing one of its best-known stars, morning anchor Stephanie Ruhle, who’s been with Bloomberg since 2011. At Bloomberg Media’s NewFront presentation in New York this week, there was plenty of talk about video content–Bloomberg revealed it’s now garnering 20 million monthly video views while doubling its video streams in the past year–but there was no focus on stars like Ruhle, Heilemann or Halperin.
Bloomberg Media chief executive Justin Smith, in a first-quarter review memo to staff last month, noted that U.S. television grew by +27 percent, but the only reference to cable programming came at the end of the letter in a mention of repurposing TV content on weekends:
Bloomberg TV has begun airing “best of” weekly recaps of many of our U.S.-based shows, including Best of Bloomberg Businessweek, Best of With All Due Respect, Best of Bloomberg West, and Best of Bloomberg
An end to WADR would also impact MSNBC, which announced last December it would begin airing the show in the 6 p.m. ET hour.