MSNBC flops in May: Network had smallest monthly audience since 1999 among viewers coveted by advertisers

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MSNBC ReidOut guests smear Florida as 'authoritarian state,' DeSantis 'next Grand Wizard of GOP'

MSNBC host Joy Reid and her guests on Friday tore into Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis, calling it an 'authoritarian state modeled after Hungary' and claiming that DeSantis is the 'next Grand Wizard of the GOP.'

MSNBC finished May with its smallest monthly audience among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54 since November 1999, and its lowest-rated month among the demo in primetime since May 2004, as Rachel Maddow’s reduced schedule continues to harm the network. 

"Record-low ratings going back to 1999 is almost always a bad sign seeing as how they were then a fledgling network and far less ubiquitous in our bodypolitic," NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News Digital about MSNBC, which launched in 1996. 

Houck believes that nowadays, liberals have a multiple options when looking to "be spoon-fed their talking points" but MSNBC honchos "need to figure something out unless NBCUniversal is content with perpetually rearranging deck chairs on their version of The Titanic." 

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Rachel Maddow, who makes roughly $30 million per year, announced earlier this year that she would only host "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Monday evenings.

Viewers between ages 25-54, who are considered young enough to change habits and buy new products or services, but old enough to have disposable incomes, are the group that advertisers largely seek to reach with commercials. MSNBC has struggled to attract viewers from this coveted group since President Biden took office, and the progressive network averaged only 70,000 demo viewers during the month of May compared to 229,000 for Fox News Channel.

MSNBC shed 24% of its demo viewers compared to May 2021, while Fox News gained 23% over the same time period. 

CNN, which has a variety of ratings problems itself and also lost 19% since last year, even managed 106,000 demo viewers during the month of May to crush MSNBC. Americans were preparing for the potential Y2K bug as the year 2000 was only one month away the last time MSNBC had a smaller audience among the group coveted by advertisers. 

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MSNBC’s primetime lineup of "All in with Chris Hayes," "MSNBC Prime," "The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell," and, once a week, "The Rachel Maddow Show," managed only 105,000 demo viewers compared to 351,000 for Fox News and 150,000 for CNN. Along the way, MSNBC shed a staggering 32% of its primetime audience from May 2021. 

Despite a busy news month during May that included tragic mass shootings, major political primaries and continued coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, MSNBC was outdrawn during May by such networks as FX, Bravo, Paramount TV Land, ESPN2, Freeform, Lifetime and Hallmark among the primetime demo. 

Joy Reid’s "ReidOut" averaged only 115,000 demo viewers in May to mark its smallest audience in the critical category since her show launched in 2020. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images Ms. Foundation for Women)

MSNBC’s performance among the critical demo was particularly alarming when broken down per program, as 15 different Fox News offerings outdrew MSNBC’s most-watched program in the category. 

Maddow, who makes roughly $30 million per year, announced earlier this year that she would only host "The Rachel Maddow Show" once a week, on Monday evenings, so that she could focus on other projects. The scaled-back version of her show began in May and the once-a-week program averaged 218,000 demo viewers during the month to finish as the No. 16 cable news show in the category, but no other MSNBC shows landed in the top 20. 

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"The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell" was MSNBC’s second most-popular show among viewers between ages 25-54, but it finished No. 25 in cable news and was outdrawn by 16 different Fox News programs. "The Last Word" even lost to eight different CNN programs, including long-struggling shows such as "Don Lemon Tonight."  

Joy Reid’s "ReidOut" averaged only 115,000 demo viewers to mark its smallest-audience in the critical category since the program was launched in 2020. MTV’s "Ridiculousness," History’s "Ancient Aliens," FXX’s Bob’s Burgers" and Investigation Discovery’s "Chaos in Court" are among the hundreds of cable news programs that outdrew Reid during May. 

Despite Reid’s program having its worst month ever, it still managed to outdraw "MSNBC Prime," which replaced Maddow at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesdays through Fridays when the network’s biggest star is busy focusing on other projects. 

"MSNBC Prime," with rotating guest hosts, finished its inaugural month with an average demo viewership of only 114,000 viewers to land at No. 30 among cable news programs.

Symone Sanders and Jen Psaki both left the Biden administration for MSNBC. 

MSNBC has recently hired Symone Sanders, a former aide to Vice President Kamala Harris, to host a weekend program, recruited former press secretary Jen Psaki to join the network and expanded morning program "Morning Joe," but media insiders are puzzled why there wasn’t a plan in place to replace Maddow’s coveted timeslot. Houck feels the network’s decision makers are at fault for dwindling viewership.

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"Somehow, someway, MSNBC continues to learn all the wrong lessons. If they honestly believe people like Mehdi Hasan, Jen Psaki, Symone Sanders, Nicolle Wallace, and more ‘Morning Joe’ will put out the burning heap that is this network, executives are severely mistaken," Houck said. 

The month of June didn’t start much better for MSNBC, as the network attracted only 109,000 demo viewers during Biden’s Thursday evening speech on gun control. CNN managed 225,000 viewers during Biden’s remarks and Fox News crushed both networks with 366,000 demo viewers. 

Ratings data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.