MSNBCs Jen Psaki sees 47% dip in ratings last month compared to Alex Wagner, Rachel Maddow: Nielsen
The Psaki bomb has turned into a major Psaki dud for left-leaning MSNBC.The embattled cable news network — which is expected to be spun off by parent company Comcast later this year — has seen ratings plunge nearly 50% in the pivotal 9 p.m.slot since Jen Psaki took over full-time hosting duties from Rachel Maddow last month.The 45-year-old anchor, who made a name for herself with her quick-witted “Psaki bombs” while serving as former President Joe Biden’s press secretary — but has since insisted she never saw signs of his mental decline — has drawn an average of 971,000 viewers since “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” debuted on May 6 through May 28, according to the latest Nielsen ratings.That’s a staggering 47% falloff from the eyeballs attracted by Maddow and Alex Wagner in the timeslot.
The drop-off is even more pronounced in the critical 25–54 age demographic prized by advertisers, where she drew just 78,000 viewers — a 52% decline compared to the 161,000 that Maddow and Wagner drew during their shows this year.“She’s kinda boring.She’s not a great broadcaster,” one media insider told The Post on Tuesday Maddow, the network’s highest paid star, returned to the anchor chair five days a week for the first 100 days of the Trump administration before going back to hosting her show just on Mondays at the beginning of last month.
Wagner was pushed out for Psaki.Psaki’s promotion from her weekend gig was part of a sweeping lineup shakeup at MSNBC aimed at injecting new energy into prime time and broadening its appeal.But early signs suggest the overhaul by new MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler, who took over from Rashida Jones in January, has backfired.Kutler quickly canceled Joy Reid’s program “The ReidOut” and replaced it with “The Weeknight,” a rip-off of Fox’s ratings champ “The Five.”The roundtable show, co-hosted by Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele, averaged 772,000 viewers in May — ...