Why Jen Psaki saw 47% drop in viewership
MSNBC's Jen Psaki has lost roughly half her audience since taking over for Rachel Maddow in the network's coveted 9pm slot last month. President Biden's former press secretary replaced the 'The Rachel Maddow Show' with her nightly show 'The Briefing with Jen Psaki' on May 6. Psaki raked in just 971,000 viewers over the month, down from Maddow's 1.89million earned throughout 2025 a 47 percent drop, according to May's ratings report.
MSNBC's ratings have fallen drastically in recent years, spurring a split from NBCUniversal and NBC News that will soon see the network sit at the top of an entirely new company comprised of Comcast cable channels. In February 2021, MSNBC averaged a total of 1.4million total viewers every hour throughout the day and an average of 2.9million total viewers during primetime hours. Today, those numbers are down to just 545,000 viewers and 718,000 total viewers, respectively - a more than 50 percent decline on both ends.
Its ratings are still worsening from month to month, with the May report showing that trend continuing at a startling pace. Psaki - pegged to lead a new primetime lineup being implemented by MSBNC's new boss Rebecca Kutler - pulled 78,000 viewers from the coveted 25-54 age demographic, down 52 percent from Maddow and Alex Wagner's 161,000 before Maddow returned to full-time.
Maddow - who marked the end of her 100-day run by attacking Trump on May 5 - managed 2.066 million total viewers and 173,000 in the 25-54 demo during her final week, more than double Psaki's first week. The month-long statistics mean the rest of the month stayed relatively the same, with the rest of Kutler's primetime lineup experiencing drops as well.
The Weeknight - a panel show that features former Kamala Harris rep Symone Sanders-Townsend; the daughter of disgraced former Senator Bob Menendez, Alicia Menednez; and ex-RNC Committee Chair Michael Steele, as hosts - averaged 776,000 total viewers through May 28 - down from its predecessor, The ReidOut.
Hosted by a since-fired Joy Reid, the ReidOut raked in nearly 3 million viewers per episode on average during its first year on the air in 2020. By February 20, the number was down to 778,000. Throughout 2025, the 7pm show pulled in 886,000 total viewers - 12 percent more than its replacement. The Weeknight performed even worse when looking at the 25-54 demo, with a 20 percent decrease to 72,000 viewers.
A third new show, The Weekend: Primetime with Antonia Hylton, Catherine Rampell, Elise Jordan and Ayman Mohyeldin, is down 11 percent among total viewers and 6 percent in the most important age demographic. Meanwhile, MSNBC is simultaneously preparing for its impending split from NBC News and other NBCUniversal assets later this year. Once it does, the left-leaning station will join a completely new company called Versant, which will be comprised entirely of Comcast channels.
The company will be headed by former NBCU exec Mark Lazarus, who reportedly gave Maddow a $5million pay cut as one of his first moves upon taking his position late last year. She now earns $25 million a year. While she remains a ratings draw, Maddow's audience is older and there have been rumblings of discontent inside MSNBC, according to Puck.
Execs were hoping the spinoff will transform what is widely viewed as a declining asset into the flagship of a growing startup, while also bringing in more money from other sources such as streaming. 'We have the ability to transcend this linear cable box,' Kutler - the leader of programming for the failed CNN+ - told Politico of her plans last month 'We have the ability to build things.' Former White House Press Secretary Psaki is seen as the network's new star, but is off to a rocky start.
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