Alec Baldwin Let Go from "Up Late"

Image from The Hollywood Reporter

I could see this coming before the premiere. I'll confess to liking Alec Baldwin since before Beetlejuice despite his mercurial real-life. He's had relationship troubles, he's had family troubles, he's had temper troubles all over the place. He's threatened to leave the country and threatened to quit show business, more than once. I've lost count of the legit tabloid scandals. But he's a great actor, and actually a smart and astute political mind.

There just isn't a forum for this guy that would work. It's amazing that he held it together for as long as he did on 30 Rock. And thank goodness he did, given how good both he and the show were. But starting with the promos that ran on MSNBC with Ed Schultz (awkward), and then the title ("Up Late" at 10 pm on a Friday night?), the show just didn't look like a winner.

Honestly, I think I caught at least part of each episode, mostly because I was probably finishing playing Candy Crush Saga after watching The Rachel Maddow Show. It wasn't a news show. It was more like a quiet PBS interview show, or maybe something like Tom Snyder used to do. I was actually very interested in his 2001: A Space Odyssey reunion with Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. But it didn't ever feel like a real show, with a long-term future. How could it?

"My" Alec Baldwin, with Geena Davis, in
Beetlejuice

Sometimes I feel like I need to defend a liberal who has been sort of shamed out of a job, especially if the right is heaping undeserved scorn on them. Not so much with Alec. I will continue to enjoy his past works, and I'll keep an eye on what he does in the future. But this was bound to happen.

[Excerpt]
 

Alec Baldwin's MSNBC show "Up Late" is ending.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that the host has been fired. A spokesman for Baldwin raised objections to the word "fired," but told the Post, “The show is not coming back. He had questions on whether he wanted to continue. . .”

Read more at: Huffington Post