Already coping with sustained post-election scores woes, MSNBC witnessed one more embarrassment over the weekend when it completed behind the plucky TV startup NewsNation in the important thing promoting demographic of adults aged 25-54.

In accordance with Nielsen Media Analysis, the liberal cable information community averaged simply 17,000 viewers in the important thing demo on Saturday between the hours of midday and seven p.m. ET. Compared, NewsNation’s programming attracted an viewers of 23,000 within the 25-54 demographic in that very same time interval.

NewsNation – the outdated WGN that rebranded as NewsNation in 2021 – additionally noticed a few of its time slots beat MSNBC by triple digits within the demo on Saturday. For example, the midday broadcast of NewsNation Stay Weekend pulled in 34,000 viewers within the 25-54 metric, besting The Katie Phang Present’s 13,000 within the demo – a 162 % benefit over MSNBC.

Total, NewsNation beat MSNBC in the important thing demo by 35 % within the afternoon and early night hours of Saturday.

Although NewsNation, the upstart “centrist” information channel that payments itself as “Information For All Individuals,” notched an unprecedented demo scores victory over its rather more established rival, MSNBC nonetheless simply surpassed the Nexstar-owned community in complete viewership.

In the course of the 12-7 p.m. Saturday block, MSNBC averaged 262,000 viewers general to NewsNation’s 58,000 – a distinction of 78 %.

Following Donald Trump’s electoral victory final month, disenchanted viewers have turned off CNN and MSNBC, whereas Fox Information has seen its scores surge. From the day after the election by way of final week, MSNBC averaged solely 603,000 complete viewers in primetime, lower than half of its year-to-date common. CNN was additionally down 46 % in primetime whereas Fox Information was up 12 %, nabbing 2.7 million viewers.

MSNBC’s flagship exhibits Morning Joe and The Rachel Maddow Present have additionally suffered record-low scores throughout this post-election recession. Late final month, Maddow noticed her demo viewership sink to its lowest level since 2015. In the meantime, this previous Monday, Morning Joe had its third lowest-rated telecast since its 2007 launch and the smallest demo viewers in over 17 years.

On the identical time, MSNBC executives really feel that the community’s loyal viewers will return after the sting of Kamala Harris’ loss fades away and Democratic anger over Trump’s insurance policies grows. This occurred in 2016 when MSNBC’s viewers fell by 41 % instantly after Hillary Clinton’s loss, just for the channel to expertise a sustained “resistance” surge in 2017 after Trump took workplace.

“A post-election dip in viewership was at all times projected and inner pondering is that it’ll decide up within the New 12 months, post-inauguration,” a community supply advised The Impartial.

The identical has additionally held true for Fox Information. Following Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, the conservative cable big’s primetime viewership fell by six %. After Barack Obama received re-election in 2012, the community’s weeknight viewers dropped by 13 %.

Regardless of the startling scores stoop since Harris’ loss, MSNBC nonetheless confirmed year-over-year progress in comparison with 2023. The community averaged 807,000 general viewers in complete day and 1.3 million in primetime, ending the yr because the No. 2 community in all of cable (behind solely Fox Information) and up two and 4 %, respectively, from the earlier yr.

As for NewsNation, the community nonetheless pulls in only a fraction of complete viewers in comparison with the Huge Three in cable information. On the identical time, it has loved double-digit progress in two consecutive quarters and noticed its primetime viewership soar by over 20 % in comparison with 2023.