Sign up for our free IndyArts newsletter for the latest entertainment news and reviews

Sign up for our free IndyArts newsletter

Sign up for our free IndyArts newsletter

MSNBC’s post-election ratings numbers continue to swell, as the liberal cable news channel saw nearly half of its viewers flee following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. Perhaps even grimmer, though, is that the network’s biggest (and highest-paid) star just saw her viewership plummet to the point where she was recently defeated by a rerun of Ancient aliens.

According to Nielsen Media Research, MSNBC has lost 47 percent of its total audience since Election Night compared to the rest of the year, averaging just 497,000 viewers per day and 49,000 in the adults 25-54 advertising group. CNN has also seen double-digit losses, down 33 percent and only 357,000 viewers per day and 65,000 in the key demo.

In primetime, the post-election decline is even more severe. While right-wing juggernaut Fox News has seen its ratings rise thanks to Trump’s victory, up 24 percent this year and 3 million viewers, MSNBC is down 52 percent. In the 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM time slot, the network’s total viewership has fallen to 644,000 viewers and 63,000 in the 25 to 54 age group. CNN is also down significantly, losing 39 percent of its total primetime viewers and attracting just 453,000 viewers.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s decisive loss, in which Trump carried all seven battleground states, has clearly prompted disenchanted progressives and Democrats to turn the channel or withdraw from cable news altogether. For example, since the election, Fox News has 62 percent of the cable news audience during the day and 73 percent in primetime.

Making matters worse for MSNBC, the network’s star has also seen viewers flee in droves. Rachel Maddow, who recently extended her contract to $25 million per year (still a $5 million per year pay cut), now only airs her primetime show on Monday nights. Since moving to a once-a-week schedule, her show is typically seen as a special attraction for MSNBC audiences and is generally one of the highest-rated programs on cable.

However, last Monday, The Rachel Maddow Show drew just 1.3 million total viewers and a paltry 84,000 in the key 25-54 demographic. (The 9 p.m. game on CNN still more than tripled.) The broadcast represented Maddow’s lowest total viewership of the year and the worst performance in the demo since 2015. Week over week, Maddow is down 13 percent in total viewers and 34 percent in the demographic.

Even more surprising, however, is how far behind the rest of the cable TV competition in audience demographics. For example, its 9 p.m. time slot airs FXX’s broadcasts Family guy and Adult Swim broadcasts Bob’s Burgers both withdrew The Rachel Maddow Show in advertising statistics. Expanding to later times, a repeat of History at 11 p.m Ancient aliens attracted 5,000 more demo viewers than Maddow.

The network’s other flagship shows have also really felt the losses. Remarkably, Morning Joe – which did everything it could to defeat Trump – has seen its audience flee in droves since co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough announced they had met with the president-elect to “restart communications.”

Since the couple unveiled their fence-mending meeting at Mar-a-Lago last Monday, not only have they seen the audience flip the channel in real time, but those viewers have yet to return. According to Nielsen, the show’s ratings have since dropped 37 percent, to just 618,000 viewers and 49,000 in the demo.

The post-election downturn for MSNBC has been so drastic that the network as a whole, including the millions who tuned in on Election Night, is still lagging compared to last November (which had no major election campaign). juice interest).

Compared to 2023, primetime viewership on MSNBC fell by five percent and total days fell by eight percent. Meanwhile, CNN was still up 36 percent in primetime and Fox News was up 90 percent in the evening. Even centrist startup cable channel NewsNation saw double-digit growth year over year, with 22 percent growth in primetime.

Of course, it’s likely that this is all part of the cyclical nature of partisan cable news.

“A post-election dip in viewership has always been predicted and the internal thinking is that it will recover in the new year, after the inauguration,” a network source said. The independent.

And there is indeed a precedent for this. After the 2020 election, in which Trump lost to President Joe Biden and went on an election-denying tirade that culminated in an insurrectionist riot, Fox News saw its primetime viewership drop by more than half. After briefly falling from the top spot in cable news, the conservative cable giant quickly rose back up and regained its ratings.

MSNBC also saw its ratings plummet after Trump’s 2016 victory and Biden’s disastrous debate performances last summer, but saw viewership return in both cases. Furthermore, even with the recent audience erosion, MSNBC is still significantly better than CNN, which just had its two lowest-rated weeks in more than a decade.

Additionally, MSNBC’s decline appears to have leveled off over the past week, suggesting the network could soon reverse the trend. At the same time, Fox News’ post-election rise appears to have stabilized.