Normally, when multiple shows go on to have record-setting viewership numbers in the span of a week, it would be cause for celebration.
For MSNBC, it’s actually cause for — some rather grave — concern.
Three of the network’s flagship personalities all saw catastrophic ratings, despite the news cycle being as busy as it can be during the holiday season.
Per Fox News, “Alex Wagner Tonight,” “Inside with Jen Psaki,” and “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” all saw historic lows in terms of viewership, all within the span of the same week.
Alex Wagner, whose show basically fills in for Rachel Maddow’s Monday-only show, saw a paltry average of 595,000 viewers during the week of Dec. 2.
Former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, meanwhile, saw her show draw just 651,000 viewers on average during that week.
And Lawrence O’Donnell “hit an all-time low among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54,” where his show drew just 61,000 demo viewers.
(O’Donnell’s raw viewership actually saw a minor uptick that week.)
Have you ever watched MSNBC?
Yes: 3% (1 Votes)
No: 97% (31 Votes)
For all three of Wagner, Psaki, and O’Donnell, those numbers represented lows not seen since their respective shows began.
That says nothing about one of MSNBC’s most featured faces, Rachel Maddow. She, according to Fox, has lost 43 percent of her audience following President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive election day victory.
And Trump might actually be a central figure here.
The election of Trump has been interpreted by many prognosticators as a repudiation against the establishment — be it the establishment media or the establishment government leadership.
Few establishment media outlets have smeared Trump quite like MSNBC.
From publicly branding Trump as analogous to the Ku Klux Klan — right before a presidential debate — to whatever MSNBC stalwarts like Joy Reid or “Morning Joe” Scarborough are usually yelling about him, MSNBC has become an absolute haven for far-left dialogue with virtually zero pushback.
Even CNN has attempted to “moderate” its voice lately by giving conservative Scott Jennings a more prominent microphone.
MSNBC has nobody approximating Jennings, and it appears that’s starting to reflect in the ratings.
But even if the network did have its own version of Scott Jennings, there are other, bipartisan issues that have afflicted the network lately.
For instance, noted race hustler Al Sharpton and MSNBC have been embroiled in an ugly scandal after Sharpton failed to disclose money paid to him by the campaign of failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris for a puff-piece interview.
Those sorts of scandals strip away trust — regardless of ideological alignment — and MSNBC appears to be paying for that crime with its viewership.
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