The genius head honchos at MSNBC took a look at Ed Schultz’s terribly low ratings and knew they had to rebrand, so they called up Chuck Todd and handed him Ed’s 5 PM slow. And for the first day, he did pretty well.
And then the ratings imploded. Really bad.
As MSNBC continues to try and reboot itself back to a cable news channel from….ummmm….. we’re not sure what they were, they are getting a glimpse that it isn’t going to be easy.
While still in the early stages, Chuck Todd’s Meet the Press on MSNBC is struggling to find viewers.
According to Nielsen, MSNBC’s MTP with host Chuck Todd at 5PM/ET averaged 423,000 in total viewers and 37,000 in the key 25-54 demo – a scratch in the demographic.
Compared to Day 1, MTP is down double-digits in both categories (down 12% in total viewers and down 51% in the key demo). The program is also down when looking at week two compared to its debut week – the show is down 10% in total viewers and 22% in the demo.
To put it in perspective, The Five on Fox News pulled 1,851,000 in Total viewers and 288,000 in the demo. CNN’s very stale Situation Room pulled 140,000 viewers in the demo, 4 times that off MSNBC.
Sources at MSNBC expected some ratings dip after week one, but not such a big fall off like this.
Not only did they collapse from his opening start, but they’ve actually fallen below that of Ed Schultz’s ratings.
Let’s put it this way – I have more followers on Twitter than Chuck Todd has watching his show in the key demo of viewers 25-55 years old.
Yeah, good luck with that MSNBC! LOL!