Rebecca Takes On the Cable News, Week of August 20: MSNBC & CNN Owe Manafort and Cohen a Big Thank You

Rebecca Takes on the Cable News is back for season three, and just in time! It was a crazy rich week for cable news, with President Donald Trump's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week helping many shows across cable news score big ratings bumps, except for one network. We also have some new shows being covered this season, as well as a new feature on our chart. Stay tuned for all the new features plus this week's Winner & Loser!

Winner of the Week:

While the majority of cable news shows ticked up for the week, The Rachel Maddow Show saw a huge surge. It's typically the highest-rated program on cable news, but it wasn't even close this time around. Topping distant rival Cuomo Prime Time by 0.08 and it typical runner-up, Hannity, by 0.12, this is one of TRMS's best results to date, despite its network losing out to CNN in primetime for the week. There's really no competition for the title of Winner of the Week. But I do need to give a special shout-out to Velshi & Ruhle for finally finding its way out of last place!

Loser of the Week:

CNN and MSNBC had pretty great weeks. Fox News... didn't. The network fell to third place in primetime, and it saw no help from the huge news stories of the week. The struggle showed the most in The Ingraham Angle, the lowest-rated program in primetime for the week. While it's typically an OK performer that always lags in the middle of the primetime pack, taking dead last for the week is a very disappointing result for it. Other shows rated lower, but that doesn't make the Ingraham Angle's rough week any better.

And now introducing the newly improved Rebecca Takes on the Cable News chart, featuring the introduction of Hardball, New Day and Cuomo Prime Time, as well as displays of the weekly highs and lows for all twenty covered shows.

What do you think of the weekly cable news developments? WHo are your winners and losers? Let me know in the comments below!

Rebecca Takes On the Cable News, Week of March 11: Firings and Vacancies and Special Elections, Oh My!

As per usual, it was a busy week in the world of politics. This week was filled with various national headlines, including the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a special election in Pennsylvania, and the death of longtime representative Louise Slaughter. Needless to say, the talking heads of cable news were quite busy this week.

MSNBC:

MSNBC had a lot to be happy about this week, and very little to be upset about. The network's only real negative for the week was Morning Joe. Morning Joe took a 3% tumble this week, an acceptable but obviously not ideal result. It fell to 15th place on the chart, which is on the weaker side of its chart placements. There was a bit of good news for Morning Joe, though. It was only narrowly defeated by its early morning rival Fox & Friends, the closest the two have ever come. Everywhere else, MSNBC saw gains of some kind, be it huge or tiny. One of biggest gains happened to be for MSNBC's tiniest show, Velshi & Ruhle. The late-morning series soared 16% in the ratings to a rounded 0.12. That still wasn't enough to escape last place, but it was still more than enough for me to call this week's performance a win. In the afternoon, Deadline: White House closed the gap between it and CNN's The Lead, but only saw a 3% gain. The show ended up falling one position on the chart, taking 13th. Beyond that, all is good for the network. The Rachel Maddow Show soared 7%, extending its lead over rivals AC360 and Hannity by even more. All In worked its way out of last in the 8 PM timeslot and rose by 6%. But the most impressive of the bunch was The Last Word. After just working its way to a podium position last week, it again rose in the ranks, this time to second. This is the first time in the history of this article series that a network has claimed both of the top slots, and that is surely something to be proud of.

CNN:

Oh CNN. How do I even analyze this week? There was a lot of movement, that's certainly a start. That movement was not all good movement. But it wasn't all bad, either. The network was home to the show with both the largest upward movement and the second-largest downward movement. That's certainly a unique feat. The week's biggest gainer was typically-anemic At This Hour, up 25% and working its way into the middle of the pack. Wolf managed a similar feat, up 17% and four slots. It worked its way into the Top ten, and began to rebuild itself after a few rough weeks. That's about all the good news that I've got for CNN. Though both shows fell, their primetime lineup was probably the best of the rest. With AC360 down 2% and CNN Tonight down 4%, the lineup held up OK. This is especially true when considering the decline for last week's CNN winner Erin Burnett OutFront, which this week tumbled 10% and took 8th place. The Lead, which had a nice week last week, gave back much of that uptick, falling 8% this week. CNN also took a distant 3rd in primetime this week. So to put CNN's performance this week in emoji: 👎.

Fox News:

This was a good week for Fox News. While it had a weak performance for one of its signature shows, the rest of the lineup ticked up after weak performances last week. The best performance of all was easily The Ingraham Angle, which rose 14% and took back its spot in the Top 5. Considering where it was last week, this is a very healthy performance. Its fellow primetime series didn't do as well, with Hannity rising 5% and falling to a bronze position. Tucker Carlson didn't rise as much, just 2%, but it actually managed to rise to 4th. Daytime series Shepard Smith Reporting was up about 3% from a weak performance last week, though it managed to actually sink to second-last. Which is admittedly not great. But the really not great performance this week on Fox News was Fox & Friends. The show went from bubbling outside the Top 10 to barely beating Morning Joe. That isn't great.


And now for the Winners & Losers:

Winner of the Week: The Last Word

I praised the show above, but The Last Word truly deserves to be commended for its performance this week. In addition to taking second place in the rankings, it also scored some of its highest ratings its seen since the inception of Rebecca Takes on the News. I named the show the winner a few weeks ago, but this performance is even more impressive. It helped its network make Rebecca Takes on the News history, and for that, it won the week.

Loser of the Week:

It seems pretty clear why Fox & Friends is in this position. With a 13% decline, it was the largest decline across the three networks. It also sank in the rankings, which is another reason it's here. The other shows on Fox News held up well, with one even soaring 15%. Fox & Friends is the ugly outlier here. It was the clear choice.

Below is the official Rebecca Takes on the News chart for the week of March 11, 2018:

Rebecca Takes On the Cable News, Week of March 4: Erin Burnett Joins Hannity & Maddow In the Network Winners Circle

It was another busy week for cable news, kicking off with a Sam Nunberg-fest on Monday and focusing on various other DC scandals (there were a lot of them, as usual) for the rest of the week. This translated into a huge surge for all of CNN, and varying degrees of success and failure for the rest of the shows.

MSNBC:

This week delivered some mixed news to MSNBC, with some parts of its daytime lineup seeing gains and all of its much-heralded primetime lineup falling from last week. Things could obviously be worse, but they could clearly be better for MSNBC. Let's start with the good news, shall we? Firstly, despite a slight fall in primetime ratings, the network retained its title as #1 in primetime quite easily, continuing what has been a great period for MSNBC's primetime division. Another positive? Flagship mornign series Morning Joe was up about 9% this week, hitting a 2018 weekly high and retaining 13th place on the chart. That's good! Also good is Deadline: White House's 13% ratings climb, which brought it to a cool 12th place finish. Semi-good news came for Velshi & Ruhle, which was completely steady in both the demo and its (last place) ranking. Things get less sunny from there. The Rachel Maddow Show was down about a half a percent, which is not really that bad and isn't really notable at all. Despite that tiny decline, The Rachel Maddow Show was still easily the week's winner, with an even larger victory over #2 Hannity than last week. The rest of the primetime lineup didn't hold up so well. The Last Word was down around 2%, despite not airing on traditionally low-rated (for primetime) Friday. Despite that, it climbed into the Top 3 for the first time and gave MSNBC a heavy 10 PM victory once again. All In with Chris Hayes was noticably weaker this week, down 7% and slipping out of the Top 5 and into 7th place. It also came in dead last at 8 PM, which is arguably the worst news of all for it.


CNN:

This was a fantastic week for CNN, which saw gains across the board, particularly for its traditionally higher-rated series. The biggest CNN gainer for the week, and biggest gainer all around, was Erin Burnett OutFront, which soared nearly 19% and 4 spots on the chart. It took 4th place and made a serious run for #3, which was derailed by a below-average Friday performance. Behind it in both gains and ratings was Anderson Cooper 360, which ticked up 15% and rose from 7th to 6th on the chart. It lost its title as #1 on CNN, but it wasn't too far behind Burnett, and it had a strong performance, so this is far from embarrassing. Fellow primetime series CNN Tonight was up around 10% and gained a spot on the chart. It recovered after last week's fall, and took a strong second place in the 10 PM slot, something even AC360 can't say about its own timeslots. The daytime shows also had a nice week, with The Lead regaining a spot in the Top 10 and climbing 12%. It again trounced its direct 4PM opponent Deadline: White House, and was well ahead of the other CNN daytime programming. Wolf also had a decent week. It remains one of the lowest-rated shows covered here, but it still had a 12% gain and also gained a position on the chart. If CNN had any losers this week, that would have to be At This Hour, which "only" gained 2% and held steady in second-last place. Still, that's not too shabby.

Fox News:

CNN had the "good week." MSNBC had the "mixed week." Well, how about Fox News? They definitely had the bad week. Nearly all of their programs fell in the ratings this week, after having a nice week last week. The exception to that increase was The Ingraham Angle, which held completely steady in the ratings this week. With CNN's big gains, that still wasn't enough to come anywhere close to holding steady in the rankings, as it fell from 6th to a distant 9th. It was also the lowest-rated 10 PM series, which isn't. a title that this show is used to. It was, however, better news than Tucker Carlson Tonight, which fell 6%. Last week, I forecasted a close race for #2 between it and Hannity. Well, I was quite wrong, as Hannity, Erin Burnett, and Lawrence O'Donnell all managed to outpace it. It still held onto a Top 5 position, but it lost that sweet, sweet bronze. At least Hannity, down 3%, managed to narrowly hold that silver position on the chart. It was easily the #1 Fox News show last week, even with the decline. Things weren't prettier in the daytime, with a horrible, no good, very bad week for Shepard Smith Reporting, down 10%. Fox & Friends had a 2% decline, which isn't anything to brag or rag about, quite honestly. It wasn't a great week for them, but Fox News can still rest east knowing that it again won the total viewers race, though even that was a more narrow win than the network is used to.

And now for the Winners & Losers:

Winner of the Week: Erin Burnett OutFront

The race for most impressive of the week could go to no other than Erin Burnett OuFront, which delivered what I consider to be its best-ever Rebecca Takes on the Cable News performance this week. Its 18% rise isn't the highest seen in this segment, but it was still really impressive. A fourth place finish is nothing to take lightly, especially when the sow that pulled that off usually hovers near the tail-end of the Top 10. This was a mighty impressive week for one of CNN's powerhouses.

Loser of the Week: Shepard Smith Reporting

At this point, it probably seems like I hate this show. This is its second time winning Loser of the Week, making it the first show to ever "win" that. But I really don't hate it. I'm just disappointed in it. This week's performance was very underwhelming, and the show got off to a terrible start with two 0.9s. It recovered later in the week, but not enough to save it from this title for the week. Sorry Shep.


And now it's time for everyone's favorite part of this segment, the charts!

What did you think of this week's cable news developments? Who are your winners and losers this week? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Rebecca Takes On the Cable News, Week of February 26: Erin Burnett OutFront Is a CNN Savior

The Olympics are finally over, and cable news should be very happy. The end of the weeks-long sporting event brought on gains for much of cable news, and I'm sure the networks can all appreciate that. It was a busy week for cable news, with the Trump Administration providing plenty of major stories, particularly with the departure of Communications Director Hope Hicks.

MSNBC:

During their first week away from the Olympics, MSNBC had a week of mixed fortunes. While their primetime lineup soared this week to a comfortable first place, their daytime shows had a rough time. It's the most striking difference in daytime and late-night lineups of all the networks this week. Eternal 17th place series Velshi & Ruhle stayed there this week, with a 5.5% percent decline this week, mostly due to one very, very ugly datapoint. That's the worst decline of the MSNBC shows, so things really could have been worse. Morning Joe was their only other show that ticked down, with a tiny 1.5% decline. It also fell one spot in the rankings, down to 13th after taking 12th last week. The network also had a tepid performance by Deadline: White House, which had a rough start to the week but slowly was able to tie the previous week. It also holds its #14 slot, and is just-barely MSNBC's lowest-rated show on the chart. And now to primetime, which MSNBC should be much, much happier about. Their entire 8-10 lineup had a great week this time around. One show in particular stood out among the rest, and that show would be The Rachel Maddow Show. The #1 show in cable news soared 10% this past week, more than any other show, despite seemingly having less to gain than any other show. The primetime bookends, All In and The Last Word, were both up about 6%, with The Last Word making a strong (albeit unsuccessful) run for the cable news bronze, while All In managed to secure its first Top 5 finish. MSNBC easily coasted to a primetime victory for the third straight time this week, which is very impressive.

CNN:

Well, it certainly was an interesting week to be CNN. On the one hand, their primetime lineup plummeted this week. On the other hand... at least Erin Burnett OutFront did well? There's really no way to spin this rough week for CNN, because it really was not good. Dropping the most of all was CNN Tonight, down nearly 15% and four spots to 9th. That isn't great. Anderson Cooper 360 didn't fare much better, down about 7%, but it did manage to hold its ranking from last week. Things do get a bit better from there at least, with Erin Burnett OutFront rising 4% and one slot. This isn't a high-end performance for OutFront, but it's not a bad one at all and it really could be much worse considering ratings for other CNN shows. Making it look even better was the razor thin margin between it and AC360, just 0.001. That is as close as it possibly could get. The Lead also had a pretty decent week, holding steady in the rankings and rising 1%. At This Hour repeated Deadline: White House's feat and held completely steady, both in the rankings and the demo. THat's not ver impressive considering how low those ratings are, but it's better than falling. Speaking of falling, Wolf tumbled 8% and very nearly returned to 16th place. And capping off a rough week for CNN, their primetime lineup remained in last, with the gap between it and Fox News widening significantly.

Fox News:

I beat on Fox News pretty hard last week, but this week is a completely different story. The network really turned things around this week, with both its primetime and daytime shows rising. Neither other network can say that. The primetime lineup didn't quite experience the gains I'd been expecting, but it also didn't take the huge CNN-esque declines, which is great news. The channel's highest gainer was Shepard Smith Reporting, which rose almost 10% and two spots on the chart. Obviosuly it isn't even close to its huge performance from two weeks ago, but that doesn't take away from this being a strong week for it. In other (Fox) news, primetime anchor Hannity was up about 6%, enough to reclaim its title as #1 Fox News show and its silver position among cable news. At this point, its greatest rival isn't Rachel Maddow, but Tucker Carlson, which is seemingly always clicking at its heels. Tucker Carlson only gained 2% this time around, so it lost to Hannity this time, but don't assume that they'll be in the same situation next time. Expect anything in this fight between two Fox News powerhouses. The Ingraham Angle was up 5% this week, looking much healthier with a 6th place finish. It's easily the weakest member of the Fox News primetime lineup, but it's doing more than enough to stay ahead of the rest of Fox, or CNN's lineup for that matter. And I didn't forget about morning series Fox & Friends, which continued to do its thing with a 10th place finish and a 3% ratings bump.


And now for the Winners & Losers:

Winner of the Week: The Rachel Maddow Show

I can't say this enough: Rachel Maddow is the Queen of Cable News. This week was an absolutely amazing one for her, with a 10% decline after already-strong ratings. It won the week by more than a tenth of a point, a huge victory. It also helped push up the ratings for its fellow MSNBC shows, helping to give MSNBC a comfortable cable news win once again. The Rachel Maddow Show is MSNBC's, and cable news's, greatest asset. And, somehow for the first time, it's the Winner of the Week.

Loser of the Week: Anderson Cooper 360

Looking at the ratings, one could make a case for this being Velshi & Ruhle or CNN Tonight's rightful title. But I was more disappointed with Anderson Cooper 360's ratings than I was with those shows. AC360 is supposed to be CNN's flagship series, and this week it really floundered. It declined 8% in a week where it should have made gains. That's really unfortunate, and that's why AC360 is the Loser of the Week.

It was a crazy week of cable news ratings. Hopefully this chart can help understand it a little better:

And hopefully this one helps as well:

What did you think of this week's cable news developments? Who are your winners and losers this week? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Rebecca Takes On the Cable News, Week of February 19: The Networks Face Their Last Week Against the Olympics. Thank God.

I'm gonna cut right to it. This was a horrific week of ratings for cable news ratings. Except for one network's primetime lineup, the declines were universal. But thankfully for cable ratings, the Olympics are finally over. Hopefully this will show in the ratings next week. If not... oof.

MSNBC:

I expressed doom and gloom above, but truth be told, MSNBC actually had a pretty good week. They hold four of the five shows that actually increased this week, including cable news's #1 show and #1 primetime lineup. They held those two prestigious honors for a third and second week, respectively. It was a blowout once again for The Rachel Maddow Show, which ticked up about half a percent and consistently posted strong ratings. This wasn't actually the network's biggest success story, though. All In with Chris Hayes rose to its best-ever placement on the chart (#6), and soared 5% in raw ratings.  The Last Word also had a fantastic showing, and it eyed a bronze finish, off just a tenth from Hannity and taking fourth. This sure was a dominant lineup this week, but with less lost from the Olymics, they also have less to gain. Fox News will certainly give it a run for its money in the coming weeks. Velshi & Ruhle also had a good week, once again. It's still the perennial last place show, but for a show that can hit such volatile numbers, it's safe to say that this week's performance was a good one. Things get less positive from here. Morning Joe sank about 4% from last week, which isn't great, but it managed to nab a 12th place finish, mostly due to horrid performances from some CNN and Fox News shows that typically out-rate it. Deadline: White House had no silver lineup. This performance was straight-up bad, with a 16% drop and a drop to 14th. MSNBC probably isn't thrilled about that weak D:WH performance, but they have plenty to be happy about.

CNN:

CNN houses one show that gained in the ratings this week, and that's it. However, it's a nice-sized gain, easily the biggest of the week. That show is CNN Tonight, and the reason for that surge is obvious: it had a huge lead-in for one of its airings last week, a Stoneman Douglas town hall that drew a 0.71. That alone makes this performance much less impressive. It deserves credit for its gain, but that gain isn't really on its own merit. Still, it's the best of the rest. The week left most other CNN shows in ruins. No show was more affected than Erin Burnett OutFront, which collapsed about 25% in the ratings this week and slipped from fourth to ninth. It also went from CNN's #1 show to the network's #3 show. Yeah, not good. News for The Lead was also not good, as it also tumbled 25%. Its consolation prize is that it held at 11th this week despite that gain, but its margin over #13 was much smaller. In primetime, CNN's signature series Anderson Cooper 360 tumbled 14% and two spots, down to seventh. It did, however, remain CNN's #1 show. I guess that's something. The anemic daytime shows got even more anemic, especially At This Hour. CNN's lowest-rated show that we cover here fell 17% in one week, and and dipped to second last. It's never been a powerhouse, but that rings especially true this week. Wolf, a show that's really been down on its luck lately, was down about 5%. That's a smaller decline than the rest of CNN, but that's not to say that the show should pad itself on the back. Like Morning Joe, it also benefited from sagging ratings from competitors, rising to 13th after a horrid 16th placement last week.

Fox News:

If CNN was down on its luck this week, Fox News fell flat on its own face. Every show was down this week by noticable amounts, and they nearly lost to CNN in primetime. The network was certainly the most affected by the Olympics out of the big three cable news networks. Down the most this week was last week's most impressive show, Shepard Smith Reporting. That show dipped about 45%. Its primetime lineup did badly too, but nowhere near that badly. The Ingraham Angle was down about 7%. I was ready to name it the loser of the week for the second week in a row, but it had a really nice second half of the week and will easily avoid that title. Its week wasn't exactly good, but it probably had the best week of any Fox News show, despite a horrible start. Hannity and Tucker Carlson also dipped about 7% each, but both were more-or-less consistent throughout the week and had poor trends the whole week. Morning show Fox & Friends did its thing and held up pretty well, dropping just 4% working its way into the Top 10 once again. However, it had some fugly numbers this week, so it's not really out of the woods. But Fox News can take salace in one thing: the Olympics are over. Hopefully that can help them. If not, god help Fox News.

And now for the Winners & Losers:

Winner of the Week: The Last Word

This show has maintained a pretty low profile here, never really excelling but never bombing either. This week, though, it did just enough to win the week. It didn't have any wow moments, but it more than held its own in a tough week. I have to praise it for that. It was a solid performer all week, and never posted any number that were less than solid. I commend it on a job well done.

Loser of the Week: Shepard Smith Reporting

I really can't believe it's come to this. After declaring it a winner just last week, I have to declare Shepard Smith Reporting this week's biggest loser. I expected a drop after last week's boosted numbers, but this drop is unacceptable. The show sank to its lowest numbers in some time, with a drop from 7th to 14th. This is its worst performance since the premiere of Rebecca Takes on the Cable News. I toyed with the idea of giving this "honor" to another show, but when it comes down to it, no other show deserves it more.

Here's the thing that keeps you coming back, the Chart for the week of February 19th:

And the primetime network chart:

What did you think of this week's cable news developments? Who are your winners and losers this week? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!