Staff Reports
MSNBC’s ratings meltdown during President Trump’s second term resembles a slow-moving train wreck—painful to watch, yet impossible to look away from. Reports from the U.K.’s Daily Mail reveal that the network’s flagship show, “Morning Joe,” has dropped below the competition in the coveted 25 to 54 age demographic, barely managing to pull in 64,000 viewers compared to CNN’s “News Central” at 73,000. As any sensible person might deduce, an obsession with left-wing narratives isn’t quite the ratings boon these folks were hoping for.
Since Trump secured his victory in November, MSNBC has seen a staggering 39 percent loss in overall audience engagement, with 46 percent evaporating in the key 25 to 54 range. Not surprising, those numbers paint a pretty dismal picture for a network that loves to preach to the choir while ignoring the actual hymnbook. As for their overall reach, the network averaged 629,000 viewers in March—a brutal 24 percent decline since the previous year—as confirmed by the Mail. Apparently, viewers are not overly enthused about tuning in to hear narratives that contradict their own experiences.
Then there’s the fallout from MSNBC’s more questionable programming choices. The network recently yanked Joy Reid’s “The ReidOut,” a show synonymous with race-baiting, as it became clear that her antics were less about enlightening viewers and more about pandering. This followed on the heels of layoffs at “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which previously thrived on stirring the pot. It’s almost as if propagandizing for the Democratic Party isn’t exactly the recipe for success in real-world viewing markets.
'Morning Joe' Takes Hard Hit After MSNBC's Ratings Collapse and Joy Reid Cancelled https://t.co/QvPCdUzEs6
— Gordon Carrico, Jr. (@GordonCarrico) April 4, 2025
Joe Scarborough’s ludicrous suggestion in March 2024 that a confused President Biden was “cogent” only added insult to injury. The disconnect from reality on display was astounding. How do a handful of hosts manage to tell their audience that a man who struggles to string coherent thoughts together on a debate stage with Trump is somehow at his peak performance? This sort of misinformation might be the final straw for viewers who want at least a modicum of truth when they sit down for breakfast.
While MSNBC can still claim some dominance in D.C.’s weekday morning slots—a city predictably enamored with its own political agenda—the reality is that this is not a sign of widespread popularity. The ratings slump highlights a chasm between the media elite’s bubble and the experiences of everyday Americans. Unless MSNBC somehow pivots away from its current formula of leftist cheerleading, its future doesn’t look bright. After all, when a network’s entire existence hinges on feeding the beast of a failed progressive agenda, it begs the question: who will be left watching when the dust settles after the Trump administration?
