MSNBC Still Struggling in Ratings, Posts Worst January Ever in Key Demo
“Despite the busy month of major news, MSNBC averaged only 63,000 demo viewers between the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET to finish No. 31 among cable offerings.”
MSNBC saw a significant drop in ratings following election night in November and has still not recovered.
Network star Rachel Maddow reportedly took a pay cut and has returned to working five nights a week after doing her show only one night a week for months. Maddow was obviously brought back in an effort to prop up their sagging ratings but it clearly hasn’t worked so far.
The numbers for January are already in and MSNBC had their worst January ever for ratings in the demo that matters most to advertisers.
FOX News reports:
MSNBC’s primetime lineup has worst January ever among demographic coveted by advertisers
MSNBC’s primetime lineup finished with its smallest January audience ever among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54.
The news-heavy month featured an alleged terrorist ramming a truck through New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, shocking video of a Tesla Cybertruck exploding in front of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, President Biden pardoning members of his family and political allies on his way out the door, President Trump’s inauguration, the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and other significant headlines as the Trump administration began with a flurry of executive orders.
Despite the busy month of major news, MSNBC averaged only 63,000 demo viewers between the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET to finish No. 31 among cable offerings. By comparison, Fox News Channel averaged 353,000 demo viewers during primetime and ratings-challenged CNN even managed an average of 118,000 demo viewers to almost double MSNBC.
DePauw University professor Jeffrey McCall said advertisers typically want to do business with networks that deliver viewers from the key demo.
“Advertisers seek the 25-54 demo because media consumers in that age range generally have money to spend and are not necessarily locked into brand loyalties. Younger demos have less discretionary money to spend, and older demos are more established in their consumerism habits,” McCall told Fox News Digital.
For MSNBC to have only 63,000 viewers in the key demo during primetime is shocking. The population of Missoula, Montana is bigger than that.
Bobby Burack of OutKick echoes FOX News, saying that this should have been a banner month for any cable news network:
What’s particularly concerning for MSNBC is that the month was filled with headlines, stories that would typically raise the average of any cable news channel.
The month included President Trump’s inauguration, an alleged terrorist ramming a truck through New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, video of a Tesla Cybertruck exploding in front of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, Biden pardoning members of his family and political allies, the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, and a series of new executive orders from Trump administration.
And yet, MSNBC recorded its lowest-rated January on record.
Brad Slager of RedState commented on Twitter/X:
The ratings in cable news have shifted from stark to astounding.@FoxNews saw major gains in January while @CNN and @MSNBC continued to wither.
For the month not only did Fox dominate, its numbers were more than double the COMBINED numbers of the competition. pic.twitter.com/kMeNp5TUSl— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) January 31, 2025
After being wrong about the election, MSNBC slipped right back into ‘resistance’ mode. It’s starting to look like the rest of the country has just moved on without them.
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Comments
The Maddow guy is going to take MSDNC the same place he took his old network – Air America – which was an insufferable melange of leftist whining and crying. Maddow was the only guy to emerge from the annoying wreckage of Air America. I wonder if he’ll do the same with MSDNC?
Wait!
Didn’t AirAmerica also give us America’s Funniest Senator?
SNL alum Al Franken?
Honk that nose, Al! No, your OWN nose!
Yeah, he was part of it but he was already a known quantity when he went on Air America and the best thing that ever happened to him was that most people didn’t know that he had been part of it. And then he went on to infamy with the original endless cote counting and surprised trunkfulls of ballots.
Air America was pretty funny – the left’s answer to Rush Limbaugh. What a flop. And, if you recall, after their complete failure with Air America the left tried to copy the Tea Party with their “Coffee Party”. It ended up being nothing but 4 losers meeting once or twice in a Starbucks, but they got tons more coverage in the MSM than the Tea Party ever got even as the Tea Party put almost a million people in Washington (that was a good rally).
No Trump Bump….people aren’t buying the hysterics any more. How sad for them.
Yellow journalism results in red financial books.
“After being wrong about the election, MSNBC slipped right back into ‘resistance’ mode.”
No, After being wrong about everything! It continues to report falsehoods and outright lies. Nothing has been learned!
Does a country full of brainwashed watchers really all change their minds immediately as the result of an election?
Or was there some dark money subsidy going on that I haven’t figured out?
They keep doing the same thing over and over and over and wonder why nothing changes and improves
Between Maddow and that idiot Joy Reid, I can’t believe they manage to draw in that many viewers
How can MSNBC improve their ratings?
a. Make Rachael Maddow the face of MSNBC
b. Make Joy Reid the face of MSNBC
c. New program starring Whoopi Goldberg in primetime
d. Accept the inevitable and close up shop and go home
While I certainly vote option “d” I doubt the first 3 will do anything as their mad rantings caused it in the first place and “d” is a less than 50/50 bet since the entire infrastructure of studios etc would have to be dismantled. I vote for option “e”, a wholesale firing of all the leftists and complete revamping with new people and maybe very large contracts to a few like Jennings to anchor and draw immediate viewers. Other than that, they will be mired in Public Access TV numbers which are unsustainable. The American Public has spoken and want’s none of what they are selling.
Yes, I know your post was tongue in cheek and not serious.
You could have stopped at “MSNBC Still Struggling” as an all encompassing reference to how far that clown show has fallen. They can’t even fill an average college football stadium with viewers on any given night.
At this point it’s not how many viewers they can gain back but how large the revenue losses it’s parent company can stand before pulling the plug on the entire enterprise.