MSNBC – which, viewership-wise, has been in a tailspin for years – has now started to do something about it which, the network obviously hopes, will reverse its fortunes.

According to Lloyd Grove, writing for the Daily Beast, Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid, two weekday afternoon hosts who have drawn little viewership, are out (though both, at least on paper, will remain with the network in some capacity).

Grove also tells us that he has heard from “well placed sources” that Chris Hayes, the underperforming host at 8:00PM will be canceled, and replaced by Rachel Maddow – with a new host for her current 9:00PM slot to be determined.  Maddow has, for some time, been the single most watched MSNBC prime time personality…but, in keeping with just about everyone else there, her ratings have slipped substantially as well. In any event, it is quite a gamble to put her head-up against Bill O\’Reilly, the reigning king of cable news prime time.

There is also talk that al sharpton, the self-aggrandizing racist serial deadbeat buffoon who disgraces MSNBC with his presence, will be consigned to a weekend show.

And, though not in this particular article, I have read elsewhere that Ed Schultz – who was inexplicably moved to weekend duty while getting (relatively) decent ratings versus O\’Reilly, and never recovered his audience after subsequently being put back to weekday duty at an earlier time (5:00PM), may also be on the chopping block.

Now the key question:  will any of this help MSNBC? 

In my opinion, if the network remains a cornucopia of little other than left wing propaganda, – which, under Phil Griffin, is a near certainty – I doubt it.

Let me end with my favorite part of Mr. Grove\’s article:

Inthe Nielsen period ending Tuesday, Farrow’s ratings reflected a70-percent loss in the key demographic over the same period a yearago when Andrea Mitchell anchored the 1 p.m. time slot.  

Reiddid slightly better, losing 67 percent of the 25-to-54 viewershipthat had watched Tamron Hall.

Wow.

How much trouble is a network in when, by losing 67% of the key demographic in one year\’s time, one of its shows is actually outperforming another.  That is roughly the equivalent of saying a team on a 20 game losing streak is being outperformed by a team going 2 – 18 over the same stretch.

More on the MSNBC re-invention as it happens.