Romney’s 47% Fiasco Fuels MSNBC Ratings Rout For Maddow, O’Donnell

Just like when the party conventions concluded and the DNC’s superior production boosted the audience for MSNBC’s primetime programming, the release of the crippling video of Mitt Romney dismissing half the nation as moochers is having a positive effect on MSNBC as well.

Rachel Maddow

On Monday, Rachel Maddow crushed Sean Hannity scoring 32% more viewers in the key advertiser demo of adults 25-54. Also, Chris Matthews’ Hardball beat Shepard Smith and Lawrence O’Donnell topped Greta Van Susteren.

Last night (Tuesday), Rachel again rolled over Hannity by an even larger margin (37%). And O’Donnell continued his dominance of Van Susteren. On both nights MSNBC took the total primetime time period from Fox News. These wins are significant in that they don’t occur very often. What’s more, they are routing Fox’s perennial winners without any special programming along the lines of a convention or debate. This is strictly news driven.

However, even more noteworthy is that Maddow’s demo numbers on Tuesday were the highest in all of the cable news primetime schedule. She even bested Bill O’Reilly by 3% despite the fact that O’Reilly’s guest was Jon Stewart who ought to have drawn in the younger viewers that ordinarily shun O’Reilly. With his devoted older-skewing viewers, plus the kids from Stewart’s heavily promoted guest appearance, O’Reilly should have run away with the night.

Maddow’s decisive victory suggests that there is something brewing in the cable news game. Viewers are responding to the editorial content of MSNBC and its most dynamic presenters. It’s still way too soon to make definitive statements or projections, but the gathering trends are promising.

Now all MSNBC has to do is capitalize on the new attention they are receiving and bring in new talent. Ed Schultz, who has not been contributing to this upswing, may be due for a makeover or a co-host. And there’s no need to repeat Hardball in the early evening when a new show could could broaden the audience. My long-shot pick: I’d give former Rep. Anthony Weiner a shot. If Eliot Spitzer can get a show on Current, Weiner should have a second chance too. He’s smart, experienced, and entertaining. And the publicity would help bring in a curious audience.

[Update] O’Donnell beat Van Susteren again on Wednesday.

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5 thoughts on “Romney’s 47% Fiasco Fuels MSNBC Ratings Rout For Maddow, O’Donnell

  1. I would love to see Weiner “have a shot” (pun intended)on MSNBC. Also agree Ed is getting a little stale. He great on union issues but the co-host suggestion has possibilities. I would also like to see Chris Hayes & MHP weekend shows repeated later in the day on Saturday & Sunday. I can do with less “Lock-Up” and more indepth analysis. MSNBC is definitely partisan but they do their homework. CNN and major network news organizations should take a few lessons from them on extensive coverage of an issue.

    • I agree. Ed’s tone is somewhat harsh. He could use someone to smooth the program’s tone and expand its scope beyond labor issues (which are important, but mot the only thing).

      And definitely they should replay those Saturday shows at times when people are actually awake.

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  3. If anyone who watches Fox and tunes into MSNBC and gives Maddow and her colleauges a chance, they will see how she delivers her arguments logically. Her arguments are supported by truthful premises and her conclusions are therefore hard to refute if you listen to her with objectivity. Unlike Fox, who simply repeats repubican talking points with no or very little basis in fact. They simply give their opinions backed up by nothing. It’s true because they say it is true. Obama is this or he is that because this particular expert we have in front of the camera, who in reality is a paid Fox contributor, says so. Fox is getting old(literally according to their ratings demographics) and many of the American people are on to them and are finding their fake journalism unacceptable.

    • I think, besides the misspelling of Republican, you made one other error in your post. Fox doesn’t repeat Republican talking points; Republicans repeat Fox talking points. It may seem like a minor point, but if you let it roll around in your head you will realize the deep implications of this. Let’s not forget the words of David Frum:

      Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox

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