Grim news for Morning Joe as young viewers desert Mika and Joe in droves

MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ has lost in the sought-after 25-54 demographic to CNN’s ‘News Central’ so far this year, when looking at the three hours both shows actually air.

The occurrence is a first since 2022, and confirmed by data viewed by DailyMail.com Wednesday.

It showed how, within the demo, New Central recorded an average of 73,000 viewers during the months of January, February and March. Morning Joe, in contrast, only managed 64,000.

Only when taking into account the 6am hour of the MSNBC show – an hour before News Central airs – did it manage to top CNN in total viewers for the first quarter, months after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the then-president-elect, days after his election win in November.

That enraged many viewers of the progressive network, which was already being hit with a pronounced post-election slump – following months of MSNBC-sponsored vitriol toward Donald Trump.

Numbers viewed by DailyMail.com show how the program lost 39 percent of its audience since Trump’s win, and 46 percent when it came to the coveted 25-54 demographic.

Double digit drops in ratings ensued – one that networks like Fox News managed to avoid.

In fact, the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel is up in total viewers and the key demo year-over-year, with The Five, its top show, now the highest rated non primetime show in a quarter in cable history.

The network also beat both NBC and ABC in weekday primetime for March, not to mention the entire first quarter of 2025. That’s the highest-rated quarter for weekday viewers in cable news history, and perhaps evidence of a post-election red wave.

MSNBC and CNN, on the other hand, are down on both fronts, including the demo that refers to a wide range of viewers.

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MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ lost in the sought-after 25-54 demographic to CNN this past week – a first since 2022

CNN ‘s ‘News Central’ outperformed it, capping a disastrous first quarter from its left-leaning rival. Host Kate Bolduan is seen here

The summit, back in November, saw many – including MSNBC’s largely liberal viewers – call the two ‘Morning Joe’ hosts out for what they viewed as ‘cozying’ up to the current administration.

At the time, the hosts dismissed the criticism, saying it just proves there is a ‘massive disconnect’ between ‘social media and the real world.’

They insisted the meet had merely been ‘to restart communications’ – a story that viewers are seemingly not buying.

In total day in March, MSNBC managed 629,000 viewers, down 24 percent from this time last year.

CNN, meanwhile, recorded 432,000 viewers – down a more subtle six percent.

Fox News – fueled by shows like Fox & Friends and America’s Newsroom – averaged an astounding 1.87 million, up 43 percent from this time last year.

In the 25-54 demo coveted by advertisers, the difference was even more drastic, with Fox News up 51 percent.

That’s compared to CNN’s 78,000 – a statistic that’s down 7 percent year over year – and the 60,000 seen from MSNBC, which is down 29 percent.

The two flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the then-president-elect days after his win in November. The move immediately spawned controversy

It saw many – including MSNBC’s largely liberal viewers – call the two out for what they viewed as ‘cozying’ up to the conservative, whom they said they wanted to ‘restart communications’ with

Similar drops were seen across the first quarter, which refers to the weeks between January 1 to March 31.

During that span, MSNBC recorded just 1.02 million sets of eyes – another double digit drop-off to the tune of 18 percent.

CNN, meanwhile, posted a less pronounced dip of six percent, at a time where the network is in the midst of pivoting to a more a digital-based operation as opposed to one centered around TV.

The same cannot be said for MSNBC, which is set to soon spearhead a new channel with other Comcast-owned networks.

That’s part of a soon-to-be solidified spinoff that will be completely separate from NBCUniversal, being dubbed SpinCo.

Within the same span for the 25-54 demo in primetime, MSNBC shed almost a fifth of its viewers, down 18 percent.

CNN, again, had more success with the demographic often billed as a ‘smorgasbord’ by advertisers – down a mere one percent year-over-year.

 Fox News’ The Five emerged the top show since the start of the year, recording 4.55million viewers within that span.

The results all appear to point to a preference for consistency, and perhaps some viewers losing faith in certain talkers

Fox News’ The Five emerged the top show since the start of the year, recording 4.55million viewers within that span.

Jesse Watters PrimeTime was at the top of the heap in the 25-54 demo, with 507,000.

The network beat out non-cable rivals NBC and ABC in weekday primetime, for both the month of March and the entire post-election quarter.

As for MSNBC, during its poor past quarter, it announced a series of programming changes that included The ReidOut’s cancellation on February 24.

The move was accompanied with others that saw Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin lose their shows as well, with Reid the only star fired.

Her ultra-opinionated show, when it premiered on July 20, 2020, raked in nearly 3 million viewers per episode, but by February 20, it was at 778,000.

As for the network as a whole, it averaged 1.4 million total viewers  during the day and 2.9 million during primetime in early 2021 – numbers now down to just 613,000 and 1 million viewers, respectively.

Meanwhile, Fox News – one of the few to not relentlessly pan the president in the buildup to and after the election – was the fastest growing network in primetime as a whole, beating both ABC and NBC from 8-11pm ET.

The results all appear to point to a preference for consistency, and some perhaps losing faith in certain talkers.

It wasn’t all bad news for Morning Joe, however, with the show managing to double CNN’s morning audience during the first quarter – the 40th time straight its beat the network in that sense.

MSNBC was also the most-watched cable network in Washington, D.C. across weekday mornings.

In March, MSNBC also averaged 3 times as many viewers as CNN during the 6 a.m. hour.

The show also grew by double digits during the first 10 weeks of the administration, after the aforementioned slump.