MSNBC viewers turn on Morning Joe at the exact worst time
When MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed that they went to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Trump and “restart communications” there was a very vocal outcry from those who saw this as a slimy turncoat move from previous ‘resistance’ figures.
But it’s one thing for the chattering class in opinion pages and on social media to turn on a show. It’s another for audiences to actually abandon it.
The MSNBC audience were PISSED. And they expressed it in real time. Ratings for the show reveal a major decline through that morning.
Morning Joe runs for four hours each morning from 6-10am. Typically ratings improve through the show as west coast viewers wake up and start watching alongside the east coast. As per Nielsen data, viewership dropped off after the hosts talked about the visit.
Between 7-8am, there was a 17% drop from 839,000 to 694,000. That rejection was even greater in the coveted 25-54 year-old age group where the drop was more like 38%.
From 8-9am (or 5-6am on the west coast) the show ticked up to 775,000 viewers, but saw another drop to 770,000.
I’d expect to see viewers return to the show throughout the week as there aren’t really a lot of good alternatives in the morning for the Morning Joe type of viewer. CNN certainly doesn’t have a good option in the slot. But as viewers are reconsidering their relationship with cable news (especially those on the left who were blindsided by the Trump win - MSNBC certainly didn’t prepare them for it with it’s cheerleading and analysis focused on all the wrong areas), the consequences of this break in viewer trust may actually be consequential.
On most weeks, this isn’t a great story for MSNBC. This week, however, it is disastrous with major corporate changes underway. Which brings us to…
It’s official - NBC is spinning off it’s cable networks
With the decline of cable TV viewership in the US over recent years, large media companies with a large footprint in that space have been penalised by Wall Street. The cable channels are dragging down the value of the parent companies, which are all pivoting to streaming.
Comcast has been better protected than most financially, thanks to it’s telecommunications and theme park holdings, but it is making a move now to splinter it’s diminished cable channels into a new company. This was telegraphed a few weeks ago at it’s quarterly earnings report and the only real surprise is how quickly they are executing the plan.
To be clear, Comcast’s cable channels still generate $7b in revenue each year. But the writing is on the wall.
Channels to be spun off will include news-adjacent flagship channels MSNBC and CNBC, along with channels that include USA, Oxygen, E!, Syfy, and Golf Channel. By spinning them off into a seperate company, it provides Comcast some optionality around when/how it may want to sell off the channels in a bundle at a later date.
Comcast is holding onto key NBCUniversal assets that includes broadcast channel NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Peacock, and reality channel Bravo. Holding onto NBC is crucial as it is a lever that can be used to acquire sports rights (AKA the only sure thing in TV anymore) and Bravo supplies a lot of content to it’s Peacock platform. Most of the remaining channels are effectively zombie brands.
Comcast said Wednesday that the new company would be unencumbered by debt and well positioned to scoop up other assets. Comcast announced last month that it was considering a spinoff, leading analysts to speculate that the new company would be on the hunt to buy rival cable TV networks, cobbling together a bigger bundle of channels.
In addition to the cable channels, the spinoff will inherit some of NBCUniversal’s digital assets, including the Rotten Tomatoes film and TV review site and Fandango, the movie ticketing business.
It isn’t clear what the future holds for the international cable channels. Or the Comcast-owned Sky (largely based in the UK). One would presume that the linear cable channels will all rest with the new company. Sky is a mystery to me, but as it wasn’t referenced in the official NBC News article on this, one would assume it just remains with Comcast.
A lot of attention from media writers has focused on what MSNBC will do without the resourcing of NBC News (CNBC is largely self-sufficient), but this is a triviality at a macro-level. The MSNBC prime-time line-up is entirely opinion-based, drawing upon talking head expertise from well-beyond the NBC stable of journalists. The daytime is where the NBC News presence is most-felt. MSNBC will just amp up the opinion talk and cede the handful of days each year when there’s consequential news that demands rolling coverage to it’s competitors. It‘s not a huge stress.
This also gives MSNBC the opportunity to spread itself a little broader with opinion-programming that extends beyond politics. Why shouldn’t MSNBC have a sports news opinion show? Media opinion? Finance opinion? Comedy programming? Free of the shackles of being tied (loosely) to NBC News, it enables MSNBC the ability to rebrand itself as more of a culture brand.
Read more: NYT
Ugh.
At first, it seems like a smart move by Australian network Seven to bring back Healthy Wealthy and Wise. The lifestyle show from the 90s sounds like a good addition for the current moment where health and wellness are increasingly core concerns, while financial pressures are also impacting on the everyday Aussie household in a way that hasn’t been felt in a few decades.
When I saw the news, I figured it was clever. Especially if they can lean into the sort of financial hacks and savvy Kmart buys that you see dominate sites like news.com.au.
But… the show probably won’t be that. Instead, this is brand-funded nonsense content that Seven’s Angus Ross promises will be more visible on the network this year:
“Next year you’re going to see more brand-funded programming at various points on the network than we’ve ever done before. That’s because we’re involving our content people at an earlier stage in ensuring the right types of brand-funded programming that’s going to get an audience.”
But, here’s a quote from the production company. Gosh, doesn’t the show sound wonderfully unique:
WTFN’s chief creative officer Steve Oemcke said in a statement: “WTFN is excited to breathe new life into this once hugely popular heritage brand. We’ll bring back all the magic of the original series, with a distinctly 2025 twist. Fun, laughs and lots of learning will win over a whole new audience of lifestyle lovers.”
Pamela Hayden, a supporting voice actor on The Simpsons who is best known for Milhouse, is retiring from the show. Her characters will be recast. Read: Variety
Voice actor Dan Hennessey has died aged 82. He was best known for voicing Inspector Quimby on Inspector Gadget and Braveheart Lion on Care Bears. Read: TMZ
Gabriel Macht from the OG Suits will recur in upcoming spin-off Suits: LA. Read: Deadline
VFX company Framestore, which handled the special effects on the Harry Potter films, is in talks to do the same for the upcoming HBO show. Read: Deadline
Disney reports 19.4 million views for Deadpool vs Wolverine in the first six days on Disney+. Read: Variety
Robert De Niro Netflix series Zero Day will debut Feb 20. Read: thefutoncritic
Star Wars: Visions will be back for a third season in 2025. Read: Dark Horizons
Sonos’ upcoming connected TV box will be powered by Ventura - an OS developed by The Trade Desk. Read: The Verge
The four-episode Inside Out spin-off Dream Productions debuts Dec 11 on Disney+.
Alien: Earth debuts in the US summer of 2025. Yes, this teaser trailer shows you nothing.
\Wonder Pets: In The City debuts Dec 13 on Apple TV+.
The adorable new series invites kids and families to come together to meet charming new characters and go on exciting adventures that spark curiosity and celebrate our unique differences.
Pop Culture Jeopardy debuts Dec 4 with three episodes. Three new episodes will debut each week. Colin Jost hosts.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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Thanks for referring to it as news.com.au. So many in the mainstream media just refer to it as news.com which is a different thing entirely.