The Ronna McDaniel era at NBC News has come to an abrupt and chaotic end.
Facing an extraordinary on-air revolt by its leading stars, NBC’s top news executive said on Tuesday that he had decided to cut ties with Ms. McDaniel, the former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, who was hired last week as an on-air political commentator.
Her tenure at NBC lasted four days.
Ms. McDaniel’s appointment, announced with fanfare on Friday, was immediately criticized by reporters at the network and viewers on social media. Fans of MSNBC, NBC’s left-leaning cable arm, were particularly outraged, citing Ms. McDaniel’s leadership of the Republican Party under former President Donald J. Trump and her handling of his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
“After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor,” Cesar Conde, the chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, wrote in a staff memo on Tuesday.
He added, “I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down.”
The backlash at NBC has already created other problems for Ms. McDaniel. She is no longer represented by Creative Artists Agency, the Hollywood talent powerhouse that negotiated her deal with NBC, according to a person with knowledge of the change. Ms. McDaniel was negotiating on Tuesday with lawyers to engage with NBC on her behalf.
Leaders in the NBC newsroom, convinced that election year audiences deserved to hear a perspective from conservatives like Ms. McDaniel, believed the hubbub would fizzle out. They did not bank on the temerity of their own stars, who on Monday lined up one by one to denounce NBC’s decision on its own airwaves.
Rachel Maddow devoted 29 minutes on her show Monday night — the top-rated program on MSNBC — to address Ms. McDaniel’s hiring, calling it “inexplicable” and associating her with historical figures who attempted authoritarian takeovers of the government. She told her bosses: “Take a minute, acknowledge that maybe it wasn’t the right call.”