Rachel Maddow Loses Viewers: Election Fallout and the End of an Era at MSNBC
MSNBC is reeling. Rachel Maddow, once the golden girl of cable news, has lost a quarter of her audience since the 2024 election. It’s not a coincidence. You can only lie so many times before people decide enough is enough. Maddow pushed the Russia collusion hoax and every anti-Trump conspiracy in her playbook, and her viewers stuck around, hoping for that big reveal. It never came.
The final nail in the coffin came on Election Day. Maddow and her network told their fans, “there is no way Trump could win again.” But then it happened—Trump won. No doubt about it. Many of her viewers felt betrayed, and the ratings plunge speaks for itself.
FOX News reports:
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow sees double digit ratings drop since Trump’s win
Rachel Maddow has shed roughly a quarter of her viewers since President Donald Trump prevailed on Election Day, marking the second time that a Trump victory turned into a loss for MSNBC’s most popular host.
“The Rachel Maddow Show” averaged 2.3 million viewers from the start of 2024 until Election Day but has shed 22% for an average audience of 1.8 million from Trump’s victory through March 7.
The decline is even more dramatic among the advertiser-voted demographic of adults aged 25-54, as “The Rachel Maddow Show” has lost 29% in the critical category when comparing her post-Election Day audience to 2024’s total before Trump’s decisive win over then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Maddow has also dropped 24% among both total viewers and the key demo when comparing the first two months of 2025 to her audience during the first two months of 2024, indicating that MSNBC viewers aren’t as interested as they were when former President Biden occupied the White House.
Remember her rant about the firing of Joy Reid? That appears to have backfired in a big way. Viewers realized that when a host repeatedly stands by stale talking points and baseless claims, the audience eventually moves on.
MSNBC is in an awful situation. With falling ratings and declining trust, it seems like any host could be cut at any time. The network is scrambling to find its footing, but the damage is done. Maddow’s loss of viewers is not just about one host—it’s a signal of the end of a certain kind of biased, wishful thinking that many are finally done with.
Leave a Comment