Ashleigh Banfield is alive and still working in media; the big recent change is that she left her nightly NewsNation TV show and shifted into a new, mostly digital true‑crime role in early 2026.

Quick Scoop: What Happened To Ashleigh Banfield?

Ashleigh Banfield (often misspelled as “Ashley”) stepped down from hosting her weeknight NewsNation program “Banfield,” with her final show airing in January 2026. She didn’t leave the network entirely; instead, she moved into a leadership role guiding NewsNation’s true‑crime digital content and expanding her existing podcast, “Drop Dead Serious with Ashleigh Banfield.”

In this new setup, she:

  • Focuses on building out NewsNation’s true‑crime digital vertical (website, streaming, and on‑demand content).
  • Integrates her podcast “Drop Dead Serious with Ashleigh Banfield” more deeply with NewsNation’s platforms.
  • Continues appearing on air as a legal analyst and commentator for major trials, investigations, and breaking crime news, rather than anchoring a nightly show.

NewsNation announced that after she left the nightly slot, rotating anchors would fill that 10 p.m. hour until a permanent replacement was chosen. This is a career shift, not a disappearance or scandal: she’s leaning into the booming true‑crime space and using her legal‑news background to drive digital content instead of hosting a traditional prime‑time show.

Some online forum chatter and Reddit threads criticize her style or coverage of high‑profile cases, especially true‑crime stories, but these are mostly opinions and memes, not reports that “something happened” to her personally.

She also continues to be mentioned in lifestyle/entertainment content, including coverage of her personal life and marriage, which reinforces that she remains publicly active rather than having stepped away from the spotlight.

TL;DR

  • She ended her nightly NewsNation show “Banfield” in January 2026.
  • She stayed with NewsNation to lead its digital true‑crime efforts and grow her podcast “Drop Dead Serious.”
  • She still appears as a legal and true‑crime analyst on the network.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.