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| Former President Trump endorsing Senator Chuck Grassley for re-election at a ‘Save America’ rally. [Source: Newsmax] |
MSNBC and CNN are well-known for being tailored toward more liberal viewers, and perhaps some conservatives who enjoy hate-watching. As such, the networks would benefit from having a Democrat President, right? Well, not exactly. In fact, both of these networks’ ratings tanked in 2021. According to the website Cable Rankings, MSNBC has shed 47% of its viewers this year, and CNN has shed 62% of its viewers. Meanwhile, Fox News has risen 8% in total viewers, thanks in part to Newsmax TV’s massive ratings gains being short-lived.
An even better comparison would be looking at the ratings today versus four years ago, meaning this time in Trump’s presidency. Take a look at this table of MSNBC’s ratings now and four years ago:
Week Ending | Total Viewers |
October 8, 2017 | 897,000 |
October 10, 2021 | 691,000 |
And CNN’s:
Week Ending | Total Viewers |
October 8, 2017 | 893,000 |
October 10, 2021 | 506,000 |
That’s a decline of 23% for MSNBC and 43% for CNN. Meanwhile, look at this comparison for Fox News:
Week Ending | Total Viewers |
October 8, 2017 | 1,611,000 |
October 10, 2021 | 1,395,000 |
A 13% decline is nothing to celebrate at face value, but compared to CNN and MSNBC is a huge ratings win. Plus, while CNN and MSNBC have remained the only two liberal-oriented networks on cable television, Fox News has gained some competition in the past four years: despite the decline, Newsmax TV’s average of 120,000 viewers is still 120,000 more than they received when they didn’t exist four years ago.
MSNBC and CNN combined now have less viewers on average than Fox News. Both networks have been trying to define their direction in 2021. MSNBC appears to be more focused on happenings with the Democratic agenda, while also providing much coverage towards the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot. They do interview Trump on a regular basis: Mary, that is, Trump’s Democrat niece who is best known for writing a book that was very critical on her uncle. Based on YouTube view counts, MSNBC’s audience embraces Mary.
CNN has opted to focus primarily on the Republican Party, even though the GOP is the minority party in both the House and Senate, and does not control the executive branch. The ratings show that CNN’s viewers simply don’t care all that much about what’s going on in the current Republican Party, at least compared to their interest in keeping up with Donald Trump. Biden’s steep decline in approval among independents certainly isn’t helping either network’s quest to grow in total viewers.
The answer to CNN’s ratings woes is not amping up coverage of President Biden. His recent town hall received 1.28 million viewers, compared to Tucker Carlson’s 3 million viewers in the same time slot. Neither is slightly altering the names of their shows: Don Lemon Tonight’s ratings are certainly no better than CNN Tonight with Don Lemon’s were.
The bottom line is, very few CNN and MSNBC viewers believe Trump would deliver on his new catchphrase to save America if he runs for and wins re-election. However, CNN and MSNBC would surely benefit from it. Trump feeds off the constant media coverage, with negative coverage only riling up his base. Additionally, the media benefits from constant Trump coverage. It’s quite the interesting relationship — one that many say helped him get elected in 2016, and could very well get him re-elected should he run in 2024.