More bad news for MSNBC as they hemorrhage viewers and are now losing to NewsNation in weekend ratings battle

Already dealing with sustained post-election ratings woes, MSNBC witnessed yet another embarrassment over the weekend when it finished behind the plucky TV startup NewsNation in the key advertising demographic of adults aged 25-54.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the liberal cable news network averaged just 17,000 viewers in the key demo on Saturday between the hours of noon and 7 p.m. ET. In comparison, NewsNation’s programming attracted an audience of 23,000 in the 25-54 demographic in that same time period.

NewsNation - the old WGN that rebranded as NewsNation in 2021 - also saw some of its time slots beat MSNBC by triple digits in the demo on Saturday. For instance, the noon broadcast of NewsNation Live Weekend pulled in 34,000 viewers in the 25-54 metric, besting The Katie Phang Show’s 13,000 in the demo – a 162 percent advantage over MSNBC.

Overall, NewsNation beat MSNBC in the key demo by 35 percent in the afternoon and early evening hours of Saturday.

Even though NewsNation, the upstart “centrist” news channel that bills itself as “News For All Americans,” notched an unprecedented demo ratings victory over its much more established rival, MSNBC still easily surpassed the Nexstar-owned network in total viewership.

During the 12-7 p.m. Saturday block, MSNBC averaged 262,000 viewers overall to NewsNation’s 58,000 – a difference of 78 percent.

Following Donald Trump’s electoral victory last month, disenchanted viewers have turned off CNN and MSNBC, while Fox News has seen its ratings surge. From the day after the election through last week, MSNBC averaged only 603,000 total viewers in primetime, less than half of its year-to-date average. CNN was also down 46 percent in primetime while Fox News was up 12 percent, nabbing 2.7 million viewers.

MSNBC’s flagship shows Morning Joe and The Rachel Maddow Show have also suffered record-low ratings during this post-election recession. Late last month, Maddow saw her demo viewership sink to its lowest point since 2015. Meanwhile, this past Monday, Morning Joe had its third lowest-rated telecast since its 2007 launch and the smallest demo audience in over 17 years.

At the same time, MSNBC executives feel that the network’s loyal viewers will return after the sting of Kamala Harris’ loss fades away and Democratic anger over Trump’s policies grows. This happened in 2016 when MSNBC’s audience fell by 41 percent immediately after Hillary Clinton’s loss, only for the channel to experience a sustained “resistance” surge in 2017 after Trump took office.

“A post-election dip in viewership was always projected and internal thinking is that it will pick up in the New Year, post-inauguration,” a network source told The Independent.

The same has also held true for Fox News. Following Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, the conservative cable giant’s primetime viewership fell by six percent. After Barack Obama won re-election in 2012, the network’s weeknight audience dropped by 13 percent.

Despite the startling ratings slump since Harris’ loss, MSNBC still showed year-over-year growth compared to 2023. The network averaged 807,000 overall viewers in total day and 1.3 million in primetime, finishing the year as the No. 2 network in all of cable (behind only Fox News) and up two and four percent, respectively, from the previous year.

As for NewsNation, the network still pulls in just a fraction of total viewers compared to the Big Three in cable news. At the same time, it has enjoyed double-digit growth in two consecutive quarters and saw its primetime viewership jump by over 20 percent compared to 2023.