MSNBC’s most popular program, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” continued in May its extended nosedive in the cable news ratings, and some critics say it’s because the show's eponymous host has spent the past several years misleading viewers.
Maddow finished the month of May behind five different Fox News programs in total viewership, including non-primetime shows “The Five” and “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
Maddow’s performance in May was even more alarming among the key demographic of adults age 25-54, where she averaged 455,000 viewers to finish tied for No. 7 in cable news, behind five different Fox News shows and even one program on MSNBC’s fellow liberal network CNN.
CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” beat Maddow in the demo despite a month filled with negative publicity over his bro-friendly interviews with his sibling, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Even the little-watched “Anderson Cooper 360” managed to tie Maddow among the key demo during May.
Maddow has been outside the top five cable news programs among total viewers and outside the top six in the demo for four consecutive months. Maddow has shed demo viewers for three straight months at the same time America has seen an unprecedented news cycle filled with everything from a global pandemic to rampant joblessness to the tragic death of George Floyd in police custody.
"Rachel Maddow's success was a one-trick pony. That trick was Trump-Russia conspiracy theories on an Alex Jones level of crazy. After the Mueller report, Maddow's decline was inevitable,” Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News, referencing the findings from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“She got a respite due to impeachment hysteria, but now that that too has passed, there's no reason for anyone except the hardcore left to watch her,” Jacobson added. “Her decline could be permanent unless some other political paranoid delusion draws people back to her."
Maddow’s highest-rated month ever was January 2019, at the height of her nightly "what-ifs" regarding whether or not President Trump's administration colluded with Russia. Maddow even finished the first quarter of 2019 as the most-watched cable news program among 25-54 demo.
"Her decline could be permanent unless some other political paranoid delusion draws people back to her."
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