MSNBC ratings in the tank

[Denny Crane]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-msnbc-falls-below-559923

Behind HLN even.

I watch it quite a bit. I'm not sure why.

What do you think?

One observation I have is that at least the people on Fox News were happy when W was in office. Not now, of course. But MSNBC got their guy elected, so they should be happy. But they're not.

 

[julius]

A perpetual change in the broadcasters, and the ones they do have now, aren't very good.

Outside of Maddow and um....the loud guy....seriously, what the hell is his name?

Oh yeah, matthews..anyways, outside of those two, the rest of their group is like the JV team of broadcasters.

 

[Denny Crane]

Salon.com circles the wagons.

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/27/whats_wrong_with_msnbc/singleton/?dtoc

 

[Denny Crane]

A perpetual change in the broadcasters, and the ones they do have now, aren't very good.

Outside of Maddow and um....the loud guy....seriously, what the hell is his name?

Oh yeah, matthews..anyways, outside of those two, the rest of their group is like the JV team of broadcasters.

Around election time, the thinking on the left was that MSNBC has a deep bench, while Fox trots out the same hosts, day after day.

Salon hit on part of what makes MSNBC good for me. It's basically 24/7 political talk shows, except weekends when they show documentaries. I love documentaries, but I can't at all get into the MSNBC ones.

If anything, MSNBC is overly predictable. The hosts are really left wing. The guests are really left wing. Morning Joe has one republican type while it parades a dozen or more lefty talking heads on camera over 3 hours.

Michael Steele, former Md governor and RNC chairman is a recurring contributor.

Fox News, for all its faults, has numerous liberals on, even as regular contributors. In theory, that would give them broader appeal.

The Fox News morning show mentioned in the Salon piece is godawful.

 

[ABM]

Their spiral to the proverbial toilet began when Olbermann left.

 

[Denny Crane]

Their spiral to the proverbial toilet began when Olbermann left.

Actually, their ratings went up. Olbermann hasn't done squat for anyone's ratings since.

 

[ABM]

Actually, their ratings went up. Olbermann hasn't done squat for anyone's ratings since.

Something about no green font needed.

Sorry.

 

[Denny Crane]

FWIW, I think this is a pretty big story.

If you've followed MSNBC, you'll know they recently split with Microsoft, claiming they were being held back. Microsoft had poured several hundred $million into the venture over time.

To cut costs, they have no news people. They run those documentaries for about 1/3 of the hours in a week so they don't have to pay so much staff.

Their hosts are likely very well paid. Chris Matthews certainly makes bank.

 

[julius]

I do like Michael Steele, now that he's not a puppet or the Republican Party.

can't stand David Axelrod, Al Sharpton and Lawrence O'Donnell.

The only ones I did like were Maddow, Matthews and Olbermann...and I rarely watch any of them now anyways. Olbermann had his strong moments, and his a little hyperbole moments.

The replacements for Keith (Schultz, Hayes (? Haynes? the nerdy guy with glasses) and Lawrence O'donnell) all are boring people, imho.

Thats why their ratings are sup-par. Not what they're reporting, but how they report it. It's why Ted Koppels show was on at 11:30 instead of prime time.

 

[Denny Crane]

I do like Michael Steele, now that he's not a puppet or the Republican Party.

can't stand David Axelrod, Al Sharpton and Lawrence O'Donnell.

The only ones I did like were Maddow, Matthews and Olbermann...and I rarely watch any of them now anyways. Olbermann had his strong moments, and his a little hyperbole moments.

The replacements for Keith (Schultz, Hayes (? Haynes? the nerdy guy with glasses) and Lawrence O'donnell) all are boring people, imho.

Thats why their ratings are sup-par. Not what they're reporting, but how they report it. It's why Ted Koppels show was on at 11:30 instead of prime time.

I like Sharpton a lot.

O'Donnell was a writer for 7 years and then Executive Producer of the TV show, "The West Wing." He should know what good television is...

 

[MickZagger]

Political news station ratings go in waves. Its just the nature of the biz. C'mon Denny, you call yourself a politic junky, too.

The shame in humanity I tell ya.

 

[Denny Crane]

Political news station ratings go in waves. Its just the nature of the biz. C'mon Denny, you call yourself a politic junky, too.

The shame in humanity I tell ya.

I watch a bit of C-SPAN. Yeah, I'm a junkie.

But look at HuffPost. Very popular site. All headlines are throwing bombs at republicans. Every thread has thousands, if not tens of thousands of posts. Sam Stein, Ariana Huffington, and others from that site are regulars on MSNBC.

Ed Schultz is back hosting a show. He's got a radio talk show.

You'd think they have enough pull to get their followers to watch the station.

 

[speeds]

The need for a Fox News counterbalance has always seemed unnecessary. Fox News aptly demonstrates what's wrong with punditry and the 24-hour fear and false outrage cycle on it's own.

CNN is also spiraling. Dunno what their ratings are like but it seems like week after week they are going out of their way to embarrass themselves.

 

[MickZagger]

I watch a bit of C-SPAN. Yeah, I'm a junkie.

But look at HuffPost. Very popular site. All headlines are throwing bombs at republicans. Every thread has thousands, if not tens of thousands of posts. Sam Stein, Ariana Huffington, and others from that site are regulars on MSNBC.

Ed Schultz is back hosting a show. He's got a radio talk show.

You'd think they have enough pull to get their followers to watch the station.

Republicans like to bitch and moan and watch the news more when a Democrat is in office and vis versa.

 

[julius]

I like Sharpton a lot.

O'Donnell was a writer for 7 years and then Executive Producer of the TV show, "The West Wing." He should know what good television is...

Sharpton, to me, is just like someone who has to yell/talk loud to prove a point.

Lawrence may have been a writer on West Wing, but that doesn't mean Aaron Sorkin would make a good tv host.

 

[ABM]

Republicans like to bitch and moan and watch the news more when a Democrat is in office and vis versa.

Not me. I fully support whoever's in office.

 

[MickZagger]

Not me. I fully support whoever's in office.

Well you're one of those rare breed classy son of a guns.

 

[ABM]

Well you're one of those rare breed classy son of a guns.

OK, well, the caveat is, I removed the word 'enthusiastically' if that helps any.

 

[MARIS61]

TV news is the reader's digest for talking points and "what we want you to think this means".

Very few facts, less truth, lots of smoke and mirrors.

I rarely watch it, except for clips on the internet.

 

[PapaG]

The need for a Fox News counterbalance has always seemed unnecessary. Fox News aptly demonstrates what's wrong with punditry and the 24-hour fear and false outrage cycle on it's own.

CNN is also spiraling. Dunno what their ratings are like but it seems like week after week they are going out of their way to embarrass themselves.

So ... only MSNBC's 24 hours of leftist punditry is necessary, with its own fear and false outrage? Welcome to your biased mind...

 

[PapaG]

TV news is the reader's digest for talking points and "what we want you to think this means".

Very few facts, less truth, lots of smoke and mirrors.

I rarely watch it, except for clips on the internet.

Or, when you're accusing me of posting FoxNews links, when it was really CNN. Still have yet to get an apology for that boneheaded post by you.

 

[speeds]

So ... only MSNBC's 24 hours of leftist punditry is necessary, with its own fear and false outrage? Welcome to your biased mind...

I'm not sure how you get that from my post. The first thing I said is that MSNBC's existence is unnecessary and inferred that MSNBC was an equal part of the problem (like dealing with killer frogs by introducing killer snakes).

 

[Denny Crane]

The need for a Fox News counterbalance has always seemed unnecessary. Fox News aptly demonstrates what's wrong with punditry and the 24-hour fear and false outrage cycle on it's own.

CNN is also spiraling. Dunno what their ratings are like but it seems like week after week they are going out of their way to embarrass themselves.

CNN's ratings are rising, not spiraling.

For the first time in a long time, they're above MSNBC.

 

[Denny Crane]

Republicans like to bitch and moan and watch the news more when a Democrat is in office and vis versa.

Like I said, Fox News was a cheerful thing to watch during W's presidency. So there wasn't much bitching going on then.

Just a few months ago, people were posting here that were ready to dance on Fox News' grave because MSNBC's ratings topped Fox News' a couple of nights.

 

[santeesioux]

I think younger people get their news online, and that's who they are trying to target. Personally, i'd be okay if all of the 24 hour news channels went the way of the dodo because they all all just awful.

 

[MARIS61]

Or, when you're accusing me of posting FoxNews links, when it was really CNN. Still have yet to get an apology for that boneheaded post by you.

It was a Fox link I was referring to. Check the thread, 2nd post IIRC. You posted both.

 

[jlprk]

Ratings go up and down. Denny talks about MSNBC ratings only when they're down.

What Fox does is to look liberal. Every single woman has long straight blonde hair. That was once called the hippie look. Looking leftish attracts viewers, since most Americans are not conservative.

MSNBC, owned by conservatives, keeps replacing successful rating, experienced-looking guys with young nerds. They want people who look conservative and can't speak clearly, so that viewers will turn the channel. Hey MSNBC, ever heard of long hair or facial hair?

 

[Denny Crane]

I posted about MSNBC ratings being down because Hollywood Reporter and Salon.com made it newsworthy.

Ratings go up for everyone but MSNBC. These numbers are change from a year ago:

FNC: 1,246,000 total viewers, up 24 percent
CNN: 465,000 total viewers, up 61 percent
MSNBC: 346,000 total viewers, down 10 percent
HLN: 494,000 total viewers, up 111 percent

 

[Stevenson]

I have always liked Chris Matthews a lot, and his weekend roundtable on NBC is the best weekend political talkshow. His book, Hardball, is an excellent read (he started with the SF Chronicle) and a great example of a book that takes political lessons and applies them to life. His daily show is very good too, and I think, mostly fair.

Rachel Maddow is brilliant, but too preachy for my taste.

Sharpton is a clown. Two words: Tawana Brawley.

Lawrence O'Donnell is smart and entertaining.

Love Morning Joe. Mika is hot too.

I've been on their Sunday small business show Your Business many times, and the host, JJ Ramberg is sweet, smart, articulate, kind, and knowledgeable.

 

[Denny Crane]

I have always liked Chris Matthews a lot, and his weekend roundtable on NBC is the best weekend political talkshow. His book, Hardball, is an excellent read (he started with the SF Chronicle) and a great example of a book that takes political lessons and applies them to life. His daily show is very good too, and I think, mostly fair.

Rachel Maddow is brilliant, but too preachy for my taste.

Sharpton is a clown. Two words: Tawana Brawley.

Lawrence O'Donnell is smart and entertaining.

Love Morning Joe. Mika is hot too.

I've been on their Sunday small business show Your Business many times, and the host, JJ Ramberg is sweet, smart, articulate, kind, and knowledgeable.

So why are their ratings tanking?