Gloom at MSNBC as Biden Veterans Jen Psaki and Symone Sanders Struggle To Draw the Same Audience as the Stars They Replaced

MSNBC’s high-stakes reorganization — in which network executives fired the channel’s highest profile black host and placed big bets on two Biden Administration communication officials as its new stars — is turning out to be a catastrophic ratings flop.MSNBC announced a series of changes at the beginning of the year after its ratings plunged more than 50 percent in the wake of the 2024 election. The network’s biggest star, Rachel Maddow, agreed to temporarily return to host her 9 p.m. show five days a week during President Trump’s first 1000 days (she’d previously only been hosting her program on Monday nights). Ms. Maddow’s temporary return to a normal work week appears to have led to a ratings resurgence, but Ms. Maddow made clear she would not work full-time after day 100. And so MSNBC’s new president, Rebecca Kutler, a veteran of CNN, made lineup changes ahead of Ms. Maddow’s recession. Ms. Kutler canceled two shows hosted by non-white personalities and launched two new shows in the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. hours, which are failing to deliver on ratings. The host of the 9 p.m. hour Tuesday to Friday, former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki, has seen a major drop compared to her predecessors. Her show, “The Briefing,” which launched on May 6, averaged 971,000 viewers, which represents a 47 percent decrease from Alex Wagner — who is biracial and hosted the Tuesday-Friday time until the inauguration — and Ms. Maddow, according to Nielsen ratings. (L-R) Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele and Symone Sanders Townsend of ‘The Weeknight.’ NBCUniversalMs. Wagner had seen a significant decrease in audience after the election. In December, she often struggled to draw in more than half a million viewers. However, in January, her audience saw an uptick ahead of the inauguration, after which when she was dumped for Ms. Maddow to take over. Ms. Wagner was supposed to return to her Tuesday through Friday hosting duties once Ms. Maddow resumed her light schedule, but Ms. Kutler replaced her with Ms. Psaki.Ms. Psaki’s audience in the coveted 25-54-year-old demographic averaged 78,000 in May, which marked a 52 percent drop from the average 161,000 viewers that Ms. Wagner and Ms. Maddow drew in during the first five months of the year. “The Briefing” suffered from unlucky timing as it launched just as the book “Original Sin,” about the coverup of President Biden’s mental decline, was dominating headlines. Ms. Psaki claimed, during promotional interviews for the show, that did not witness Mr. Biden exhibiting any signs of diminished mental acuity. The book, however, claims that Mr. Biden was struggling at the beginning of his term.Rachel Maddow was described by an unnamed executive as ‘ratings Viagra’, thus justifying her enormous salary. Via MSNBCThe former press secretary is not the only host to struggle to bring in viewers. The network’s 7 p.m. panel show, “The Weeknight,” hosted by Syomne Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez, and Michael Steele, averaged 772,000 viewers since it launched on May 5. That represents a 19 percent decrease from the average 955,000 viewers of the last month of the previous show during that timeslot, “The ReidOut.”In the 25-54-year-old demo, “The Weeknight” averaged 72,000 viewers, a 20 percent decrease from “The ReidOut.”MSNBC canceled “The ReidOut,” hosted by far-left Joy Reid, who is black. Unlike Ms, and was fired with the end of her show.“The Weeknight” is a panel show with two black hosts (Symone Sanders and Michael Steele) and a third host (Alicia Menendez) who identifies as Latina due to her father being Cuban-American.Joy Reid bids an emotional farewell on her final program, with kind words from her surviving MSNBC colleagues (L-R) Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Lawrence O’Donnell. Via MSNBCLike “The Briefing,” “The Weeknight” has strong associations with establishment Democrats from the Biden years. Ms. Sanders was a top aide to Vice President Harris. Ms. Menendez is the daughter of Robert Menendez, the Democratic former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during Mr. Biden’s presidency. He was convicted last year on corruption charges and sentenced to prison. The decision to axe Ms. Reid, along with its decision to cancel the shows of other non-white hosts, drew a harsh rebuke from former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who wrote on X, “An MSNBC purge so brutally racist it makes you think it was done by Musk.”“They didn’t even try to hide the racism by firing an unnecessary white anchor like [Katy] Tur or [Stephanie] Ruhle as cover,” he said (Mr. Olbermann dated Ms. Tur in the late 2000s).In another post, he wrote, “Of course MSNBC’s firing of Joy Reid was racist. They’ve only had four women of color host their own shows. They’ve now fired them ALL.”The MSNBC news personality, Alex Wagner. NBCUniversalMeanwhile, Ms. Maddow delivered an on-air rebuke of the decision to fire Ms. Reid, saying, “I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC, and personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door.”She also denounced the racial dynamics in play.“It is also unnerving to see on a network where we’ve got two, two non-white hosts in prime time, both of our non-white hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend,” she said. “And that feels worse than bad no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible and I do not defend it.”This week, Ms. Reid also suggested her firing was due to her race. “I’m a Black woman doing the thing. You know what I mean? And so I’m not different, but I’m different … I think that there’s a difference for Trump in hearing the kinds of criticisms, specifically, out of a Black woman. It bothers him in a way it doesn’t bother him like anything else,” she said during a discussion with news personality Katie Couric. In April, NBCUniversal touted MSNBC as the “#1 cable news network among black Americans.” The network has also consistently ranked as the top cable network for black viewers, beating out other entertainment networks like BET.However, with the cancellation of Ms. Reid’s show and Ms. Wagner’s program and the launch of MSNBC’s new line-up, its primetime ratings are again struggling. Nielsen’s ratings for May show that its primetime programs averaged 877,000 viewers, down 24 percent compared to the rest of the year. In the 25-54-year-old demo, primetime programming averaged 73,000 viewers, a 34 percent decrease from the rest of the year.For the whole day, viewers once again seem to be fleeing MSNBC. For the total day, it averaged 545,000 viewers, down 33 percent from the first part of the year. In the key demo, it averaged just 49,000 viewers, which represents a 41 percent decline. The ratings failures – as well as allegations of racism MSNBC’s current and former biggest stars – are likely to increase pressure on Ms. Kutler, who took over from a black executive, Rashida Jones.MSNBC did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment.

Gloom at MSNBC as Biden Veterans Jen Psaki and Symone Sanders Struggle To Draw the Same Audience as the Stars They Replaced

More from the New York Sun

Florida Freeze Prompts Roundup of Cold-Stunned Iguanas as Thousands Fall From Trees

The 50,000 Dow

The Dow 50,000 Prosperity Rocket Ship

More from the New York Sun

Florida Freeze Prompts Roundup of Cold-Stunned Iguanas as Thousands Fall From Trees

The 50,000 Dow

The Dow 50,000 Prosperity Rocket Ship

Luigi Mangione’s Jeopardy

Will the Navy End Iran’s Ability To Export Oil?

Algebra, English, and Activism: Teachers at Middle and High School Instruct Students How To Protest ICE

Ex-CNN Star Ashleigh Banfield, Savannah Guthrie’s Former Coworker, Doubles Down on Her Reporting About Brother-in-Law

Economical Horror Indie ‘The Arborist’ Outshines Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners,’ in Many Respects