MSNBC ratings rebound after massive post-election drop

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After taking a big hit post-2024 election, MSNBC’s ratings have started to go the other direction.
The network, which focuses on hard news during the day and showcases progressive opinion hosts in the evening, lost about half of its average audience in the week immediately following Donald Trump’s victory, with many of its left-leaning viewers tuning out from news altogether.
However, the week of Trump’s inauguration delivered a boost to MSNBC.
The network saw growth over its pre-election ratings of just over 60% the week of Jan. 20, 2025, with 1.3 million primetime viewers compared to just under 800,000 in the three weeks immediately before that, according to Nielsen data.
MSNBC is still down slightly over its 1.34 million average viewers the last full week before the election.
The shift in ratings is not unusual or unexpected; major news events can affect ratings significantly.
CNN also lost a good chunk of its audience, going from 754,000 average viewers in primetime that last full week before voting to 398,000 during the week of Jan. 20. For key timeslots, viewers have been returning, but CNN’s ratings were already lower than MSNBC prior to the election.
MSNBC’s decision to bring back “The Rachel Maddow Show” to five nights a week for the first 100 days of Trump’s time in office has also paid off, with ratings for that show averaging around 1.7 million. The show that goes right up against Maddow on CNN, “The Source with Kaitlan Collins,” has been averaging 745,000 viewers during the same time period. “Maddow” had shifted to a once-weekly format back in 2022.
However, other ratings shifts weren’t as good. MSNBC was down 34% to 506,000 average total day viewers and CNN was down 9% to 421,000. Fox was up 53% to 1.92 million.
MSNBC also fell the last place in the adults 25-54 demo when final ratings period data was released, coming in at 45,000 for total day. CNN had 80,000.
Fox’s right-leaning FNC handily won the ratings battle on election night with 10 million viewers. MSNBC, for the first time since it launched, beat CNN that night with 6 million viewers over CNN’s 5.1 million. All of these network’s numbers were significantly higher than their average primetime viewership, given the high-profile nature of any election night.
Initial data showed FNC’s primetime ratings were also down slightly from 2.67 million to 2.63 million viewers, but updated numbers at the end of the ratings period boosted that figure to 2.8 million. CNN came in at 522,000 and MSNBC grabbed 734,000 in primetime.
While only a small amount of time has passed, the trends would suggest that MSNBC has gained back much of its audience since the election, while CNN is still foundering.
This post was updated Jan. 29, 2025, with updated ratings data.
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CNN, Donald Trump Second Term, Fox News, MSNBC, ratings, the rachel maddow show, The Source with Kaitlan Collins, TV Ratings
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Broadcast Business News, Broadcast Industry News, Cable News, Elections, Featured