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Chris Matthews out at MSNBC

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Chris Matthews has announced he is “retiring” from MSNBC and his iconic “Hardball” program after a published report of sexual harassment allegations was made public.

Some outlets are reporting that he “resigned” while there are also reports that Matthews may have been given the choice to “retire” or “resign” or risk being fired.

Matthews began hosting “Hardball” on the now defunct “America’s Talking” in 1994. That network essentially became MSNBC and, in 1996, his political show moved to CNBC. It would remain there for two years before moving to MSNBC in 1999.

Matthews made a brief appearance at the top of his normal timeslot Monday, March 2, 2020, from Washington, D.C.

After his statement, the network went to a commercial break before returning with a stunned Steve Kornacki in New York, who briefly praised Matthews.

After another break, the program picked up with coronavirus coverage.

The show continued to use the “Hardball” graphics with Matthews’ photos even after he signed off.

Matthews, 74, has had a bad slate of headlines lately — ranging from comparing Bernie Sanders’ campaign to the Nazis and accusations of sexual harassment.

Matthews was noticeably missing from the network’s South Carolina coverage over the weekend.

In his statement, Matthews expressed his pride in the work he’s done and also noted that many, including himself, have made statements about women in the past that they now realize were unacceptable.

A source told CNN’s Brian Stelter that Matthews had been in discussions about retiring from the network after the 2020 election, but that recently those talks heated up.

It’s not immediately clear what MSNBC will do with the 7 p.m. eastern timeslot now that Matthews is gone, though March 3 is Super Tuesday so it will likely would have just pre-empted normal programming for continuing coverage even without the sudden news.

We’ve reached out to MSNBC reps for comment.

MSNBC is also reportedly in the midst of consider other schedule changes, including possibly canceling or moving “MTP Daily” to the morning so the well rated “Deadline: White House” can expand to two hours.

Former NPR host Joshua Jackson is also reportedly in line to get a regularly timeslot on the network, but no plans have been announced.

Anchor Ali Velshi recently vacated a solo hour of “MSNBC Live” in favor of a weekend show, leaving another gap in the schedule that’s being filled by rotating hosts.

Velshi also left the hour he co-anchored with Stephanie Ruhle.

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