MSNBC's Ratings, Like Obama's, Are Sad

This story has been noted for some time, though it's getting a fresh look today from some media analysts.

Bill Carter wrote a big piece on MSNBC's declining ratings in mid-October.

Though it has mostly happened quietly, which may be a comment on the cable network’s larger status in the media landscape, MSNBC has seen its ratings hit one of the deepest skids in its history, with the recently completed third quarter of 2014 generating some record lows.

...

During the third quarter, Ms. Maddow reached an average of 183,000 viewers in the audience component that most matters to MSNBC's advertisers, viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, her lowest total since she started her show in 2008.

More worrying is the slide for "Morning Joe," which has, for much of its time on the air, enjoyed status as one of the most talked-about shows in media industry circles. Now the heat around the show seems to have dissipated. For four straight months, and six of the last eight, "Morning Joe" has trailed CNN’s new morning entry, "New Day."

...

MSNBC’s other numbers are no prettier. Over all in prime time, MSNBC, which for years had squashed CNN head-to-head on weeknights, has recently dropped consistently behind that network. The falloff over the last five years is stark. In the first quarter of 2009, MSNBC averaged 392,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic for its weeknight lineup. In the third quarter of this year, the number was down to 125,000.

The network’s newest prime-time host, Chris Hayes, also hit a low in the third quarter, averaging 129,000 viewers in the 25-54 category, his worst since his show began in the second quarter of 2013.

The median age of the MSNBC viewer has also ticked upward. Five years ago it was 58; now it is 61. CNN has edged down a bit, from 62 five years ago to 59. Fox News has aged from 65 to 68.

Keep in mind, when people goof on Fox for being a channel for old people, the difference between the average age of a Fox viewer and MSNBC or CNN viewer is either seven or six years, respectively.

Eric Wemple (of the WaPo) wrote soon after that article that as goes Obama, so goes MSNBC.

So, how to account for MSNBC’s ratings decline? Time for speculation. As the progressive network, MSNBC is tied closely to the Obama administration, whose very own ratings have experienced a steep decline since the 2012 elections. Just after his victory over Romney in 2012, President Obama had an approval rating of 53 percent, according to Gallup. Early last month, that approval number hit its all-time low of 38 percent. As people tune out President Obama, perhaps they’re tuning out MSNBC as well.

Today the once-nearly-relevant media critic Michael Wolff suggests the same explanation as Wemple did.

The Democrats' sinking fortunes have been pretty accurately charted in the declining ratings at MSNBC, the party's house network, which culminated, on election night, in a 22% fall from the last midterm election in the all-important 25-to-54 age group.

MSNBC's problem is almost exactly the same as the Democrats' problem: It built its future around a vivid and dramatic hero who, unfortunately, turned out to be both opaque and conflict averse. MSNBC now has a lineup of ever-righteous and often sulky defenders of President Barack Obama, who seem, not just to conservatives but to many liberals, too, bizarrely tone deaf and lost in time.

...

This erosion suggests that the new core will be ever-smaller than the previous core, meaning the networks will need even more vividness and heroism and home team razzmatazz to focus the niche, just at a moment when political drama and pride, especially for the Democrats, are in vastly short supply.

On CNN, Brian Stetler asks if there's any future in "liberal news," overlooking the fact that he is a biased liberal commentator working for the biased liberal organization CNN.

But in case you care -- he has Dan Rather offer up his opinion on MSNBC's woes.

posted by Ace at 05:35 PM

| Access Comments