In what we learned shortly thereafter was a selfish ploy to save their own behinds from possible scrutiny by a second Trump administration come January 20, the visit to Mar-a-Lago by MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-hosts and married couple Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to see President-Elect Trump has contributed to the Swamp insider-y show’s ratings cratering like it was hit by one of those Mother of All Bombs (MOAB).
Mediaite editor and NewsNation media analyst Colby Hall explained that Monday’s show in which they disclosed the meeting actually lost ratings by the hour. Citing Nielsen Media Research numbers, he showed their starting audience in the 6:00 a.m. Eastern hour of 839,000 viewers dropped to 694,000 in the second hour, 775,000 for the third, and 770,000 for the fourth.
Nielsen numbers for Tuesday and Wednesday’s shows revealed an even further erosion as the corporate liberals, D.C. insiders, and other Resistance types abandoned Morning Joe. Tuesday’s Nielsen ratings showed just 680,000 total viewers for the four-hour show with 76,000 from ages 25 to 54, a remarkably small number for a network that size.
Wednesday told an even more grim picture, despite the litany of political stories surrounding the Trump transition, multiple foreign crises, and lameduck happenings on Capitol Hill.
In total viewers, MSNBC’s Morning Joe drew only averaged 647,000 total viewers, down 43 percent from their ratings in the previous quarter (July, August, and September). Younger viewers were only pegged at 51,000, a 60 percent drop in the same time frame.
The Fox News Channel, meanwhile, continued to cruise. Since the election, total FNC viewership is up 41 percent compared to all days prior in 2024.
Speaking of overall ratings, MSNBC writ large has been hemorrhaging viewers since the election to the tune of 43 percent overall and a staggering 60 percent in ages 25 to 54.
Add in Comcast making official on Wednesday morning that it’s spinning off MSNBC and six other cable networks and potential financial ramifications (e.g. cutbacks in the form of layoffs) and it’s not the best time to be a liberal journalist at MSNBC.
