The Psaki bomb has turned into a major Psaki dud for left-leaning MSNBC.
The embattled cable news network — which is expected to be spun off by parent company Comcast later this year — has seen ratings plunge nearly 50% in the pivotal 9 p.m. slot since Jen Psaki took over full-time hosting duties from Rachel Maddow last month.
The 45-year-old anchor, who made a name for herself with her quick-witted “Psaki bombs” while serving as former President Joe Biden’s press secretary — but has since insisted she never saw signs of his mental decline — has drawn an average of 971,000 viewers since “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” debuted on May 6 through May 28, according to the latest Nielsen ratings.
That’s a staggering 47% falloff from the eyeballs attracted by Maddow and Alex Wagner in the timeslot.
The drop-off is even more pronounced in the critical 25–54 age demographic prized by advertisers, where she drew just 78,000 viewers — a 52% decline compared to the 161,000 that Maddow and Wagner drew during their shows this year.
“She’s kinda boring. She’s not a great broadcaster,” one media insider told The Post on Tuesday
Maddow, the network’s highest paid star, returned to the anchor chair five days a week for the first 100 days of the Trump administration before going back to hosting her show just on Mondays at the beginning of last month. Wagner was pushed out for Psaki.
Psaki’s promotion from her weekend gig was part of a sweeping lineup shakeup at MSNBC aimed at injecting new energy into prime time and broadening its appeal.
But early signs suggest the overhaul by new MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler, who took over from Rashida Jones in January, has backfired.
Kutler quickly canceled Joy Reid’s program “The ReidOut” and replaced it with “The Weeknight,” a rip-off of Fox’s ratings champ “The Five.”
The roundtable show, co-hosted by Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele, averaged 772,000 viewers in May — a 19% drop from the 955,000 “The ReidOut” pulled in during its final month in February, according to Nielsen.
Among the 25–54 demographic, the new crew averaged just 72,000 viewers, down 20% from what the Trump-bashing Reid garnered.
Overall in primetime for May, MSNBC averaged 877,000 viewers, down 24% from the rest of the year. In the 25–54 demo, MSNBC averaged 73,000 viewers in primetime, a 34% drop.
Across the full broadcast day last month, the network drew 545,000 viewers, down 33%, and just 49,000 in the key demo, a 41% decline.
MSNBC declined to comment.
“In May, four months into the presidency, survey data shows rising news fatigue across all networks,” said a source close to the situation.
The source added that Psaki has shown some signs of progress despite the overall downturn.
“’The Briefing’ builds on the audience of its 8 p.m. lead-in, which is a major improvement,” the insider said.
News fatigue has apparently not affected Fox News’ stranglehold in the ratings race. The conservative network, which shares common ownership with The Post, averaged 2.46 million viewers in prime time — up 23% — and 1.56 million across total day programming.
In the demo, Fox pulled 262,000 viewers in prime time (up 32%) and 180,000 during the day (up 22%), according to Nielsen.
Last-place CNN, meanwhile, continued to limp along, averaging just 426,000 total primetime viewers and 353,000 across the day, down 18% and 24%, respectively.
The most-watched cable news show in May was Fox News’ “The Five” with 3.77 million viewers, followed by “Jesse Watters Primetime” at 3.23 million. Fox also dominated with other top programs including “Gutfield!” (2.92 million), “Special Report with Brett Baier” (2.81 million), and “Hannity” (2.73 million), who competes against Psaki.
“Since the election, Fox News has delivered the top 1,013 cable news telecasts,” the company said during an earnings call last month.
“This combination of an engaged audience and a dynamic news cycle led to record audience share in the quarter.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
