MSNBC dropped to third place in January in both Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo. (The network had come in a distant second to Fox News for 2009 in younger viewers ahead of CNN and HLN).
In daytime viewing the story was even worse. Between 9am-5pmET, MSNBC programs finished either 4th or 5th in their time period, but did show slight growth from December — up 7% in Total Day/Total Viewers and up 4% in Total Day/demo.
Total day (Mon-Sun): 367k total viewers / 122k A25-54
Prime (Mon-Sun): 703k total viewers / 226k A25-54
In the demo, MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” was fourth at 5pmET and 7pmET and “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” slipped to third in the demo, behind HLN’s “Nancy Grace” but still ahead of CNN’s “Campbell Brown.” “The Rachel Maddow Show” was third behind “Larry King Live.” In the demo, “Morning Joe” was fourth behind “Fox & Friends,” “Morning Express,” and “American Morning.”
Year-to-year, MSNBC is down -28% in Total Viewers (-39% in the demo) for total day and -26% in Total Viewers (-38% demo) in primetime.
MSNBC was down against CNN last January, but, in primetime, finished the year stronger.