David Gregory, the embattled host of NBC's Sunday morning flagship, Meet the Press, is reportedly on his way out, to be replaced by NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd.
According to Mike Allen's morning political cheat sheet, Politico Playbook, Gregory's run on the venerable Sunday morning news show may be coming to end soon, with the announcement of Todd as the new host expected within weeks.
Rumors of Gregory's demise have swirling since April when NBC reportedly brought in "branding consultants" to look at Gregory and his show and provide advice on how to reverse his plummeting ratings.
According to the New York Post, viewership for Meet the Press has declined 43 percent since Gregory took over for the late Tim Russert, who died on the set in June of 2008. For the second quarter of 2014, Meet the Press came in third place in the ratings, behind Sunday morning competitors Face the Nation on CBS, and ABC’s This Week.
In an interview with the Huffington Post in March, NBC News senior vice president Alex Wallace, expressed support for Gregory, stating, ""I cannot be more declarative about David -- is our guy, is going to be our guy, and we are really happy with him."
Speaking with media critic Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace acknowledged the rumors swirling around Gregory and admonished NBC for leaving Gregory "twisting in the wind’."
“We all understand we don’t have a right to these jobs,” Wallace told Kurtz. “On the other hand we do have a right to be treated properly and not shabbily. If you’re going to get rid of David Gregory — and I don’t know that they are, I have no inside information — then they oughta just do it.”
“This twisting in the wind is unseemly,” Wallace added. “They oughta say either ‘He’s our guy and we’re sticking with him,’ or they should get rid of him.”
According to Politico, Gregory recently met with CNN President Jeff Zucker, with whom Gregory worked when Zucker served as president and CEO of NBC Universal.
The 43-year-old Gregory has been with NBC since 1998, hosting a variety of news shows before taking the reins of Meet The Press in 2008.
