MSNBC’s Jen Psaki bombed on Wednesday night.
Psaki took over MSNBC’s coveted 9 p.m. ET timeslot on Tuesday through Fridays this week as “The Rachel Maddow Show” returned to only airing on Mondays, after Maddow temporarily returned to airing five nights a week during President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.
Psaki, a former Biden administration press secretary, hosted “Inside” on Sundays and Mondays, and now hosts “The Briefing” at the critical hour.
On Tuesday, Psaki’s “The Briefing” debuted with 1.2 million viewers and 139,000 in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54, but her second episode on Wednesday plummeted to just over one million total viewers and only 65,000 in the demo.
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MSNBC’s newest program shed a staggering 53% of its demo viewers compared to the first episode only one day prior. Psaki’s program also lost a whopping 67% of viewers between the ages of 18-49 after only one episode, as “The Briefing” averaged 113,000 on Tuesday and only 37,000 on Wednesday.
MSNBC had much better results at 9 p.m. ET last week with Maddow at the helm, as she averaged 1.9 million total viewers and 141,000 among viewers aged 25-54. Psaki’s second episode managed to shed 46% of those totals among total viewers and 54% in the critical demo.
Psaki’s Wednesday episode was outdrawn by 38 different cable news offerings among the advertiser-coveted demo despite the cushy timeslot. MSNBC’s 9 p.m. ET program was outdrawn by everything Fox News Channel had to offer, along with 13 different CNN shows and seven MSNBC programs.
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On Wednesday, Psaki’s “The Briefing” also had fewer viewers among adults aged 25-54 than various repeats of “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “The King of Queens,” and “That 70s Show,” along with Nickelodeon’s “Paw Patrol,” Hallmark’s “Reba,” and TLC’s “My Strange Addiction,” and many other basic cable offerings.
Psaki also failed to boost her primetime colleagues, as it was MSNBC’s lowest-rated Wednesday from 8-11 p.m. among both total viewers and the demo since January 8, before Trump was sworn in for his second term.
It was also MSNBC’s lowest-rated 9 p.m. program among the demo on a Wednesday since Alex Wagner managed only 40,000 advertiser-coveted viewers on December 11, 2024.
Psaki served as Biden’s first press secretary from 2021 until May 2022.
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