Last week, a report revealed the effects MSNBC was enduring since Rachel Maddow departed for her hiatus to work on other projects for the company.
In the first couple of shows since Maddow left, MSNBC’s marquee 9 p.m. program lost about 30% of its audience in the pivotal 25-54 demographic. It was a small sample size, but days since the hiatus began, viewership didn’t get any better.
Last week, Ali Velshi hosted Maddow’s 9 p.m. show, “The Rachel Maddow Show.” During that same week, the show averaged 26% fewer total viewers and 24% fewer viewers in the critical 25-54 age demographic than the week prior, per Mediaite.
Between Feb. 7th and 11th, the program yielded an average of 1.55 million total viewers and 177,000 viewers in the demo. Maddow routinely surpasses the 2 million viewer mark, excluding Friday nights, which are usually down.
Maddow went on a temporary hiatus as she begins to work on various projects, including turning her podcast Bag Man into a movie. However, she is expected to be on air for important political events and return in a few weeks.
This week MSNBC political analyst and recent rehire Alex Wagner hosted Maddow’s show on Monday.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
