Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid pulled from MSNBC daytime for Thomas Roberts

Feb 19, 2015 | 9:13 PM

Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid pulled from MSNBC daytime for Thomas Roberts — Ronan Farrow will remain with MSNBC, specializing in interviews and working as a special corresondent who appears on programs across the network. (Nathan Congleton)

Young blue eyes is out as MSNBC shakes up its daytime lineup.

Programs hosted by Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid are being pulled as of March 2. Thomas Roberts, currently the anchor for the early morning news program "Way Too Early," will take over with a two-hour news-focused block from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET.

Farrow, the 27-year-old son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen (or alledgedly, Farrow's ex-husband Frank Sinatra), was hired with much fanfare in late 2013. A Rhodes scholar and former Obama administration special advisor on humanitarian issues, he had no television experience. He does have a large following for his quips on Twitter, which was seen as making him a draw for younger viewers who tend not to watch cable news.

That didn't happen as his ratings, along with Reid, were often the lowest of the entire day for NBCUniversal-owned MSNBC and were believed to be depressing the audience levels for the rest of the channel's lineup.

Farrow will remain with MSNBC, specializing in interviews and working as a special corresondent who appears on programs across the network.

Executives inside the network were said to be impressed with his reporting from Paris in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo.

In addition to doing interviews and specials, he will also work with the NBC News investigative unit, according to an MSNBC representative.

Reid will also remain with MSNBC as a national correspondent, contributing to various programs and to the channel's digital platforms.

With Roberts, MSNBC is making a commitment to covering more breaking news during the day. Unlike Farrow or Reid, Roberts is an experienced news anchor who handles developing stories without a script.

MSNBC is coming off a tough year in the ratings, seeing its audience for the total day decline by 12% in 2014, ranking behind Fox News Channel and CNN. The decline in viewers aged 25 to 54, which is what advertisers want when they buy news programs, was 18%.