The Lead
MSNBC saw changes to its primetime lineup as Jen Psaki stepped into the timeslot temporarily occupied by Rachel Maddow during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
After Maddow returned to her Monday-night-only schedule, The Briefing with Jen Psaki debuted in the timeslot. During her final full week leading the temporary show, Rachel Maddow’s program averaged just under 2.1 million total viewers. Included in that figure was 173,000 viewers from the coveted Adults 25-54 demographic.
During her first show back to her normal Monday-only schedule, The Rachel Maddow Show averaged 1.7 million total viewers and 155,000 from the key demo.
In the first week of The Briefing with Jen Psaki, the show averaged 1.1 million viewers, a drop of 47% compared to the final full week of Maddow’s show in the window. Additionally, the decline was also present in the key demographic, as 92,000 viewers — on average — watched the first full week of Psaki’s show.
The absence of Rachel Maddow in the MSNBC lineup was felt throughout the primetime schedule. During the 100 days that Maddow hosted a nightly program on the cable channel, the network averaged 1.149 million viewers.
During the first week with Maddow back to her usual Monday-only schedule, MSNBC averaged 892,000 total viewers in the primetime window. That represents a decline of 22%. The figure is more in line with the pre-inauguration totals seen by the network, where it averaged 739,500 total viewers.
ABC World News Tonight Sees Bump During Papal Conclave Coverage
The death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV were bound to drive upticks in cable news viewing. We now know just how big the bump was, as ABC World News Tonight saw gains during those weeks.
During the week of the death of Pope Francis, ABC News saw a 3.6% increase in total viewers from the previous week, as it averaged 7.4 million viewers.
The week of the election of Pope Leo XIV, the nightly newscast averaged 7.3 million viewers. That figure also represented a 3.6% increase over the prior week with no Pope-related news.
It is worth noting that Pope Francis died on a Monday, while Pope Leo was voted as the leader of the Catholic church on a Thursday.
The nightly newscast from ABC News was anchored by David Muir live from Rome between Tuesday and Thursday.
NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt — who is set to depart the anchor chair from the venerable news program later this month — was also in Rome those same days. That network averaged 5.6 million viewers during the week of its coverage of the papal conclave.
NBC News actually saw a decrease in its viewership during the week of the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo compared to the prior week. It was down 3.4% the week during the death of Francis and down 4.1% in the week of the conclave.
CBS Evening News Only Newscast to See In-Demo Increase
The ratings news for CBS Evening News has not been positive for several months of 2025, mostly since former anchor Norah O’Donnell departed the newscast.
But there was a ratings win for the program, as during the week of May 5th, it was the only network newscast to see ratings growth inside the key Adults 25-54 demographic.
In the demographic, CBS News saw a 4.1% increase in demo viewership compared to the previous week, up to 502,000 for the week. During the same timeframe, NBC News saw a 9.3% decrease in viewership from the demographic. It fell to 789,000 viewers.
ABC News, meanwhile, had the slightest drop in average audience from the key demographic, dropping from 973,000 to 971,000 during the week of May 5th.
Despite the increase in viewership for ABC News on the back of the news of the election of a new pope in total viewership, the network actually saw its smallest average audience in the key demographic during the week of May 5th. It marked the second straight week the newscast failed to eclipse one million viewers. However, it is still the top-rated newscast in the coveted sector.
While the CBS Evening News still lags well behind its network news competitors in both the total viewership and key demo totals, it has steadied the ship slightly in the coveted demographic.
In April, the nightly newscast fell below 500,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demo twice, including a new 2025 low during the week of April 28th. The network bounced back in each of the weeks following those dips below the half-million mark, up to 544,00 in-demo viewers during the week of April 14th after falling to 491,000 the week before.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
