Dramatic CNN, MSNBC Post-Trump Ratings Plunge Continues
Once MSNBC and CNN lost President Trump to obsess over, they also lost a big chunk of their audiences.
After Justice Sonia Sotomayer swore in Joe Biden in January, the ratings bump both CNN and MSNBC experienced between November and January began nosediving spectacularly.
Unfortunately for them, things aren’t getting any better:
As Daily Caller recently reported, the freefall that started in January continues apace:
During the primetime hours of 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. (EST), CNN lost around 65% of its total viewers since January. In the critical 25-54 age demographic, the network lost 71% of its viewers for both the day and primetime.
CNN’s drop in viewers is larger than its competitors, but all major cable news shows have experienced a drop. MSNBC had the second-largest drop in viewership since January, losing 49% of its total viewership between January and May. In the 25-54 age demographic, the network lost 63% of its viewers. During primetime hours, MSNBC lost 42% of its total viewers and 58% of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54.
However, they also noted that although Fox News lost viewers as well, the percentages were much lower. The popular news network shed 12% of total viewers and 15% between the 25-54 age group in the same timeframe.
The color graphics hit the point home about how bad things have become at the two liberally biased news outlets. MSNBC occasionally shows signs of life:
Cable TV Top Demo Networks – May 17 – 23
Primetime
1⃣@NBAonTNT
2⃣@ESPN
3⃣@TBSNetwork
4⃣@USA_Network
5⃣@FoxNews
6⃣@NBCSports
7⃣@HGTV
8⃣@FoodNetwork
9⃣@Discovery
🔟@BravoTVTotal Day
1⃣ESPN
2⃣TNT
3⃣Fox News
4⃣TBS
5⃣@DiscoveryID
6⃣HGTV
7⃣USA
8⃣Food
9⃣@CNN
🔟@TVLand pic.twitter.com/vCtVpRFyYU— RoadMN (@RoadMN) May 25, 2021
Cable TV Top Total Viewer Networks – May 17 – 23
Primetime
1⃣@FoxNews
2⃣@MSNBC
3⃣@ESPN
4⃣@TNTDrama
5⃣@HGTV
6⃣@TBSNetwork
7⃣@USA_Network
8⃣@CNN
9⃣@Discovery
🔟@HistoryTotal Day
1⃣Fox News
2⃣MSNBC
3⃣ESPN
4⃣HGTV
5⃣CNN
6⃣TNT
7⃣@DiscoveryID
8⃣@INSP_TV
9⃣@FoodNetwork
🔟History pic.twitter.com/gPMbHnxq7W— RoadMN (@RoadMN) May 25, 2021
Monday cable news hourly ratings shares:
Topping the chart: @TuckerCarlson with a dominant 56% viewer share
Scraping the bottom of the barrel: @ChrisCuomo with a mortifying, measly 15% share. You are the weakest link. Goodbye!
Chart via @RoadMN pic.twitter.com/IC7a3VqUEi
— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) May 25, 2021
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald noticed a weekend viewer demographic that was particularly embarrassing for MSNBC:
Because the political/media class cares about cable news, I don't think it's sunk in how the audience for MSNBC & CNN has disappeared almost completely. On the weekend, there's basically *nobody* under 55 watching MSNBC. They barely get 50,000 people! Any YouTube video gets more. pic.twitter.com/6OQ7NG1wUG
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 25, 2021
The demographics are even more amazing. They basically talk only to the elderly. 9 out of every 10 MSNBC viewers on the weekend — 90%! — are over 55. The median age of their viewers is 68 years old! But even among the elderly, barely anyone watches. The numbers are shocking. pic.twitter.com/qBM9aWMBkc
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 25, 2021
Where are their younger viewers going? I suspect they’re making beelines for alternative liberal “news” sites that have an even more partisan slant than MSNBC and CNN do as if that’s humanly possible. Like the Young Turks, Democracy Now, etc.
Also, there’s something to be said about how liberal news outlets seem to do better with Republican presidents in office, and conservative ones do better with Democrat presidents in office, a point Mary made here. I think that has contributed to the rating issues for CNN and MSNBC as well.
The bottom line here, though, is that without Trump, CNN and MSNBC are hopelessly lost, up the creek without a paddle. Their slobbering over President Biden, while expected, holds little appeal for the younger hardcore leftists. They don’t believe Biden has shown enough fealty towards the radically progressive wing of the Democratic party (led by AOC) but who also find him boring and embarrassing to watch.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
The daily Two Minutes of Hate network seems to be suffering. That’s really too bad. Maybe they could try slipping some news in.
They wouldn’t know news if it kicked them in the face.
What I would like to see is an analysis of how long it will take CNN and MSNBC to go bankrupt. I would love to hear that they have expired.
They are run by people that don’t care how much money is lost (just a tax writeoff).
That’s the problem. The other problem is that while both are weak, they suck in more people combined than the opposition.
This site tends to look at only ways to bash these networks while not recognizing their dangers. Old people is EXACTLY who the Dems want watching these networks because that’s where they peform the weakest at the polls. They know that they already have hooked the young with academic indoctrination and low information hot takes from youtube/twitter. The younger generations are not adult thinkers and don’t have the attention span for critical, rational thought. The best one liner will get them.
Speaking old, my father is in his 90’s. For a very long time he was buying MSNBC crap, I was eventually able to get him to dump MSNBC, but he is still watching CNN, He has had three strokes, and not in good shape, but he votes.
A lot of old conservatives that are creatures of habit are easily manipulated by these networks. They both used to be unbiased at the very least and pre-date FOXNews. Many of these old folks never got the message that their coverage has become salacious political propaganda.
CNN was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner (sometimes known as “Mister Jane Fonda”). As early as 1995, the TV series “JAG” repeatedly referenced the network (parodied as “ZNN”) as consistently and stridently anti-military and entirely liberal. So if they ever used to be unbiased, it was somewhere on the timescale of antiparticle decay.
I question whether anyone’s minds are changed either way. All broadcast “news” is a “progressive” echo chamber, and the same is true of almost all of the print media.
As for CNN or MSNBC, et al, going bankrupt, all I can say is “Don’t hold your breath.”
“My heart soars like a hawk”
For the record, Fox News is NOT a Conservative news outlet. It’s just slightly less liberal than CNN and MSNBC.
And I can’t stand to watch any of them.
I find Tucker entertaining, the rest I can do without.
I do like Life, Liberty & Levin and I am looking forward to giving Bongino’s new show a try when it airs. Other than that, no Fox here.
Haven’t watched FNC since the Trump /Wallace debate. Newsman and RT–if I want mainlined hate America.
Zero surprise there.
I’ve stopped watching all cable and MSM news. No NYT, WAPO, or any other mainstream printed news sources either. It sucks but what are you supposed to do? None of them can be trusted.
If we still watched mainstream news it would probably be ABC, but that got harder to stomach a couple of years ago. NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC weren’t even on our radar. Since the first of this year we rarely watch anything but local news to keep up with the local community with an occasional peek at Fox News. It’s just not worth the heart ache.
.
It’s a crapshoot. Phoenix’s metro ABC outlet is consistently the strongest anti-gun voice on the airwaves, especially when they have to lie to do it.
That is exactly what I’ve done too. No TV news except for weather or a non-political catastrophe. If there’s an important speech, I’ll watch it on C-Span. No CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS. I really like Carlson, but quit him too, because all I do is become angry. I still follow the news closely, but not from those sources. The bigger issue, for me anyway, is the lack of trustworthy news anywhere.
It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of people. They just might have to get a real job amongst the hoi polloi, and then what?
Quelle horreur!
I’d tell them to learn to code, but when you feed lies into computers, they just won’t work.
I think part of the problem is that they’re not news channels anymore. Unless there is breaking news, they’re talk shows disguised as news channels, even during the “news” programs, and they talk about the same subjects over and over, just with different talking heads. You learn more about what’s going on in the world from the bottom-screen crawls most of the time.
BTW, Fox News is included in that.
I have read that Fox plans to shift toward hard news, but I will believe it when I see it. I can live with a slant in either direction, but only if tempered by old-school journalistic practice. The media have always been a mixed bag, but it’s never been this bad in my 63 years of life.
See Tater. See Tater talk. Talk, Tater, talk. Watch Tater see his ratings. See Tater cry. Cry, Tater, cry.
After watching Mark Dice’s imitation of this guy, I can’t look at him without laughing.
Watch him:
https://www.youtube.com/c/markdice/videos
More precisely
(go to 4:28:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRfZ3i-Ad3I
Doesn’t matter. China, Soros, and other malcontents, miscreants, and degenerates pour money into and support these pathetic excuses for news organizations–so don’t get too excited about their demise. Imagine the good all that money could have done if it wasn’t spent on such evil.
CNN and MSNBC.
Lies and biased coverage are not a good long-term plan for media
You can fool all of the people some of the time;
You can fool some of the people all of the time;
But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.