MSNBC and CNN Are Setting 20-Year And 30-Year Ratings Lows

This week marks one month since Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. And it has been a miserable month for two of the three major cable news networks.

During the week of November 25, CNN saw its lowest-rated week among total viewers since June 2001 with an average of just 268,000 viewers. By comparison, Fox News averaged 1.4 million head-to-head.

MSNBC managed to only slightly outdraw CNN with an average of 346,000 viewers. But the real concern for MSNBC lies in primetime, where its shows used to reach more than 1 million viewers. Last week, the network averaged 465,000 viewers in primetime.

In the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54, CNN recorded an average of just 41,000 viewers for the week – the network's lowest in nearly 30 years. Yet the channel still topped MSNBC, which averaged an almost unheard-of 29,000 total day viewers among the demo.

It was MSNBC’s worst week among the demo since November 1997, when Bill Clinton was still president.

Despite nearly wall-to-wall hysteria over Trump's cabinet picks, particularly Pete Hegseth, MSNBC had a smaller audience among the demo than 36 other cable options –  including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, E!, The Cartoon Network, Oxygen, MTV, Hallmark Mystery, and a pair of Lifetime networks.

Good to see The Cartoon Network still kicking. Hallmark Mystery is still around, huh?

Joe Scarborough, Joy Reid, Brian Stelter -- Getty Images

Look, cable news viewers tend to turn off the television when their preferred candidate loses an election. Kamala Harris was the preferred candidate for the vast majority of CNN and MSNBC viewers. According to Pew Research, only 9 percent and 3 percent of CNN and MSNBC's respective viewers identify as "Republican."

However, these declines are greater than just the usual post-election response from fans of the losing team. Both networks have set generational lows and face valid questions about their abilities to rebound.

Mass media is now the least trusted profession in the nation, per Gallup. More people trust Congress than the media. CNN and MSNBC are two of the main reasons why.

Consider the lies the two networks told viewers ahead of the election – from the "bloodbath" hoax to the "very fine people lie," from warning that Trump was akin to Adolf Hitler to stating that concerns about the border were overblown. Heck, the two networks spent the last week before the election telling their viewers that Trump said he'd execute neo-con Liz Cheney. 

Lie after lie. Hoax after hoax.

At some point, viewers are going to catch on. Based on the numbers, viewers have caught on that CNN and MSNBC are mere propaganda machines for the Democrat Party.

Are those viewers just going to forget the lies the channels perpetrated come 2025? We have no reason to believe they will, at least not en masse.

L-R: MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Joy  Reid, Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber in Studio 3A at Rockefeller Center on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/MSNBC via Getty Images)

Further, both channels face dilemmas in terms of their on-air talents.

MSNBC's top drawing card, Rachel Maddow, now hosts her program only once a week. That's not enough. Liberal viewers are still boycotting "Morning Joe" after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Race hustler Al Sharpton is facing ethical concerns over failing to disclose that his foundation received $500,000 from Kamala Harris's campaign before he interviewed her on MSNBC. Joy Reid is still her usual racist self, except 50 percent fewer people are watching

At CNN, the network continues to search for a breakout host or reporter who separates from the pack. No one has emerged. Sure, Abby Phillip's nightly panel creates headlines as conservative Scott Jennings takes on – and thumps -- three or four liberals at a time. But those headlines have not translated to viewership. Finally, Laura Coates has been a disaster at 11 pm. She's not a prime host.

No one knows for certain what the future of media looks like. Perhaps it's YouTube, podcasting, or X. Whatever it is, it's certainly not the current interactions of CNN and MSNBC.