This year marked a lot of change at MSNBC and their marquee anchor Rachel Maddow who has scaled back her workload as a weekday anchor and only appears on a weekly basis.

“This has been in the works for a while now, but it looks like it’s going to happen,” Maddow said at the time.

 “I am super excited about it and I am going to take a little bit of time off from this show to go help with the movie and also to work on some other things that I have cooking with NBC right now, including a new podcast.”

However, this change has resulted in the network taking a hit in the ratings. The New York Post reports MSNBC’s key 9 p.m. ET primetime weeknight slot has been embroiled in a ratings slump since “The Rachel Maddow” show went to a once-per-week format. 

Among adults aged 25-54, a key segment for advertisers, “MSNBC Prime averages slightly 114,000 viewers per night. That number is a 47-percent decrease from Maddow’s average of 214,000 before the change.

Despite the decrease in ratings, MSNBC remains ahead of its competitor CNN, which has been without a host in the 9 p.m. slot since the firing of Chris Cuomo. MSNBC has duplicated CNN’s viewership on nights when Maddow’s show doesn’t air. 

Former White House Press Secretary and incoming MSNBC staffer this fall Jen Psaki appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” where the conversation included the mass shooting at Robb Elementary.

During the interview, Pskai stated that she hopes that components of the Uvalde elementary school massacre will “jerk people awake” about the problem of gun violence.

“I was thinking about sending my daughter to kindergarten today. And is she safe? Is she okay there? What kind of security do they have? Should they have security?” Psaki said, per Mediaite. 

“And those are the kind of thoughts that are going through your head when you’re in the White House, too, because you’re thinking about what the country is experiencing, what communities are experiencing, and what you can do to help, help heal, help bring some calm, if you can, in that moment.”

Despite not much happening over the past decade, especially after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012, which shocked the country in the social media era, Psaki says she isn’t losing hope that there will be change. 

“Everybody has a voice. Everybody can use that voice in many ways. Yes, you can vote. You can also get involved in a lot of organizations. There are amazing organizations fighting for gun reform out there. And that’s another way to get involved. And nobody is powerless,” Psaki added. 

“But I would also say that I learned from working in the White House and working in government is that you have to always have hope. You have to always think that change is possible, and that maybe it’s not going to happen next month or next year. I don’t know.”

“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough slammed Republicans and Fox News over the “bulls–t” disputes they raise whenever there is a mass shooting. 

The massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was the latest school shooting in the United States. 21 people died on Tuesday, including 19 children and two teachers. 

Scarborough told co-host Willie Geist that pro-gun arguments that come after mass shootings reminded him of conspiracy theories in one animated commentary.

“It’s always Whac-A-Mole. You know, they say, ‘well, what about this conspiracy theory?’ You disprove it after spending days. ‘Okay, well, what about this?’ And it’s always Whac-A-Mole,” Scarborough said, per Mediaite.

“It’s always Whac-A-Mole! It’s always bulls–t! They always play the game. So they never have to talk about the children who are murdered, about all the deaths. One mass shooting after another mass shooting after another mass shooting.”

Scarborough added that it’s time to go after weapons of war and weapons that police cannot stop when a mass shooting occurs. 

“Going after weapons of war. They should go after weapons of war. They should go after weapons that police officers can’t stop. That police officers … and body armor?” Scarborough said.