MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ lost in the sought-after 25-54 demographic to CNN’s ‘News Central’ this past week – a first since 2022.
The incident, initially reported by Status, occurred several months after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski visited Mar-a-Lago to meet with the then-president-elect shortly after his victory in November.
That enraged many viewers of the progressive network, which was already being hit with a pronounced post-election slump.
DailyMail.com’s data indicates that the show’s viewership dropped by 39 percent following Donald Trump’s election and by 46 percent among the 25-54 demographic.
The Mar-a-Lago summit, meanwhile, came after months of MSNBC-sponsored vitriol toward the latter – and it immediately spawned controversy.
A post-election slump ensued – one that networks like Fox News managed to avoid.
Interestingly, the Rupert Murdoch-owned network has seen an increase in total viewers and the crucial demographic compared to the previous year. The Five, one of its popular shows, is currently the highest-rated non-primetime program in cable history for a quarter.
The network also beat both NBC and ABC in weekday primetime for March, not to mention the entire first quarter of 2025. That’s the highest-rated quarter for weekday viewers in cable news history, and perhaps evidence of a post-election red wave.
MSNBC and CNN, on the other hand, are down on both fronts – and Morning Joe’s lost ground to its daytime rival appears to suggest some viewers are still perhaps alienated by the couple’s admitted olive branch to the conservative.
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MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ lost in the sought-after 25-54 demographic to CNN this past week – a first since 2022
CNN ‘s ‘News Central’ outperformed it, after a disastrous first quarter from its left-leaning rival. Host Kate Bolduan is seen here
It saw many – including MSNBC’s largely liberal viewers – call the two out for what they viewed as ‘cozying’ up to the current administration.
At the time, the hosts dismissed the criticism, saying it just proves there is a ‘massive disconnect’ between ‘social media and the real world.’
They insisted the meet had merely been ‘to restart communications’ – a story that viewers are seemingly not buying.
In total day in March, MSNBC managed 629,000 viewers, down 24 percent from this time last year.
CNN, meanwhile, recorded 432,000 viewers – down a more subtle six percent.
Fox News – fueled by shows like Fox & Friends and America’s Newsroom – averaged an astounding 1.87 million, up 43 percent from this time last year.
In the 25-54 demo coveted by advertisers, the difference was even more drastic.
Fox News, averaging 239,000, was up 51 percent.
The two flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the then-president-elect days after his win in November. The move immediately spawned controversy
It saw many – including MSNBC’s largely liberal viewers – call the two out for what they viewed as ‘cozying’ up to the conservative, whom they said they wanted to ‘restart communications’ with
That’s compared to CNN’s 78,000 – a statistic that’s down 7 percent year over year – and the 60,000 seen from MSNBC, which is down 29 percent.
Similar drops were seen across the first quarter, which refers to the weeks between January 1 to March 31.
During that span, MSNBC recorded just 1.02 million sets of eyes – another double digit drop-off to the tune of 18 percent.
CNN, meanwhile, posted a less pronounced dip of six percent, at a time where the network is in the midst of pivoting to a more a digital-based operation as opposed to one centered around TV.
The same cannot be said for MSNBC, which is set to soon spearhead a new channel with other Comcast-owned networks.
That’s part of a soon-to-be solidified spinoff that will be completely separate from NBCUniversal, being dubbed SpinCo.
Within the same span for the 25-54 demo in primetime, MSNBC shed almost a fifth of its viewers, down 18 percent.
CNN, again, had more success with the demographic often billed as a ‘smorgasbord’ by advertisers – down a mere one percent year-over-year.
Fox News’ The Five emerged the top show since the start of the year, recording 4.55million viewers within that span.
The results all appear to point to a preference for consistency, and perhaps some viewers losing faith after flip-flopping seen post-election
Fox News’ The Five emerged the top show since the start of the year, recording 4.55million viewers within that span.
Jesse Watters PrimeTime was at the top of the heap in the 25-54 demo, with 507,000.
The network beat out non-cable rivals NBC and ABC in weekday primetime, for both the month of March and the entire post-election quarter.
As for MSNBC, during its poor past quarter, it announced a series of programming changes that included The ReidOut’s cancellation on February 24.
The move was accompanied with others that saw Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin lose their shows as well, with Reid the only star fired.
Her ultra-opinionated show, when it premiered on July 20, 2020, raked in nearly 3 million viewers per episode, but by February 20, it was at 778,000.
As for the network as a whole, it averaged 1.4 million total viewers during the day and 2.9 million during primetime in early 2021 – numbers now down to just 613,000 and 1 million viewers, respectively.
Meanwhile, Fox News – one of the few to not relentlessly pan the president in the buildup to and after the election – was the fastest growing network in primetime as a whole, beating both ABC and NBC from 8-11pm ET.
The results all appear to point to a preference for consistency, and some perhaps losing faith in certain talkers following flip-flopping seen post-election.
