If MSNBC was riding a bicycle then they would be going downhill right now. The primetime network has plunged off a cliff when it comes to ratings. In the days following the presidential election and Donald Trump's win, ratings have fallen 54%.
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Ouch, that has to sting. Delving into the MSNBC numbers a bit more, the news channel went from 1.1 million viewers daily in October to just 736,000 daily viewers after Election Day, according to Nielsen Media Research data.
Sure you can blame post-election drop-off. But I don't think that tells the whole story here. In the same period, Fox News ratings grew 61%. So it's not like people weren't tuning into cable news. Of course, you could say the election had an effect on it. More people were tuning into major broadcasts in general during the election.
Likewise, Trump's win probably energized the Right-Wing base to tune into Fox. Meanwhile, the Left likely feel a bit downcast and abandoned the news for now. But what about all the people in the middle? The centralists, if you were. Well, they're not tuning into MSNBC. That's for sure.
MSNBC Ratings
All of the channel's primetime shows experienced a large scale drop. They're down 54% to 808,000, according to Nielsen data. These shows garnered 1.8 million throughout October.
Rachel Maddox's show carried 6 million viewers on Election night. Meanwhile, Fox News had a whopping 10.3 million on Election night.
Sharon Waxman, a former correspondent for The New York Times and founder of Hollywood news site The Wrap, says that the media landscape needs a total rethink.
"If you're like me, you haven't turned on the news since last Tuesday when Donald Trump won the election," Waxman wrote for The Wrap on Sunday. "Personally, I can't bear to listen to another minute of wisdom from Joy Reid, my friend Lawrence O'Donnell or the admirable Rachel Maddow."
"I'm not saying I'll never watch or listen again. But - am I alone here? - my entire body recoils from listening to more claptrap from the same claptrapping apparatus," Waxman wrote.
MSNBC's losses appear to be Fox News' gains. But it's not just the channel. CNN also suffered a ratings decline following the election. Now, that network is rumored to be considering layoffs. All that being said, MSNBC remains the No. 2 cable news channel behind Fox News after the election.
