Is MSNBC Tanking Without Olbermann? Not Quite…
- Posted on June 19, 2011 at 12:46pm by
Scott Baker
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AP
NEW YORK (AP) — Keith Olbermann essentially invented the present-day MSNBC, but he didn’t take it with him when he left.
As Olbermann prepares for his debut on Current TV on Monday night, the MSNBC he left behind has survived; its boss says it has thrived. The prime-time focus on left-of-center political talk show hosts that began with Olbermann’s transformation to on-air activist remains. Rachel Maddow, once Olbermann’s protege, has taken over as the network’s marquee name.
So far this year, MSNBC’s average weekday prime-time audience is 965,000 viewers, or 10 percent more than last year over the same period, the Nielsen Co. says. Fox, easily the market leader with 2.4 million viewers, is down 12 percent in the same comparison, and third-place CNN is up 10 percent, with 770,000 viewers.
“I was surprised that we did not dip at all,” said Phil Griffin, MSNBC’s chief executive. “I was prepared for a 10 percent dip.”
Dig deeper into the numbers and the picture isn’t quite as clear. Viewership at 8 p.m. following Jan. 24, when Lawrence O‘Donnell took over following Olbermann’s abrupt departure, is down 6 percent from last year, Nielsen says. Ed Schultz’s 10 p.m. hour is up 29 percent over last year, but MSNBC in early 2010 aired an Olbermann rerun at that hour, meaning Schultz’s audience of 884,000 is being compared with recycled material a year earlier.
There‘s nothing uncertain about Maddow’s ascension. She has 1.05 million viewers, on average, this year, a bump of 100,000 over a year before.
“She really has elevated the discussion and is in many ways the model that we want for cable news,” Griffin said.
Maddow has been the constant in MSNBC’s prime-time lineup. O’Donnell, who had gotten his own show after delivering strong ratings as a guest host for Olbermann, moved from 10 p.m. Eastern to 8 p.m. after Olbermann left. Schultz had been working earlier in the evening and got his shot in prime time.
Each man has attracted attention in recent months for some overheated commentary. In O‘Donnell’s case, he went hard after “Celebrity Apprentice” star Donald Trump during the real estate mogul’s flirtation with a presidential candidacy. O’Donnell called Trump “the most deranged egomaniac” in NBC entertainment history.
Schultz was suspended for a week in May after referring to conservative host Laura Ingraham as a “right-wing slut” while on his radio show. He apologized for the remark.
MSNBC is still a destination for liberal viewers, but there‘s some disappointment that network personalities aren’t more challenging to the Obama administration and Democratic orthodoxy, said Jeff Cohen, an Ithaca University journalism professor and liberal activist. He said there hasn’t been enough debate about military action in Afghanistan and Libya.
“I would argue that it was more independent when Olbermann was there,” Cohen said. “His charm, if you can call it that, is that he’s uncontrollable. He’s not a party-line guy.”
MSNBC is facing the same issue that Fox News had during the Bush administration: It’s not as exciting being on defense when the party you support is in power as it is being on the outs and on the attack, said Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center.
“Now it’s, ‘Let’s not make trouble for these people. They have enough to handle with angry conservatives,’” he said.
Griffin said that analysis is flat-out wrong. He said there was extensive debate among MSNBC hosts about the extension of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, for example. Network personalities also harshly criticized the Obama administration for not fighting Wisconsin legislation that unions considered harmful, he said.
“We are not a rubber stamp, and it would be wrong for anybody to imply otherwise,” he said.
Even if he hasn’t been on the air, Olbermann has been critical of the Obama administration. He released a video on Current‘s website in April saying the administration’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a military procedure instead of civilian court was wrong.
The big test for MSNBC comes this week as Olbermann begins competing head-to-head against the man who was once his substitute host. MSNBC has an advantage in reach because the network is available in more than 95 million of the nation’s nearly 115 million homes with television. Current TV is in some 60 million, often hidden way up the network dials.
Griffin won’t talk about Olbermann or his Current show.
He’s bullish on MSNBC, though, and predicted that within a couple of years his network would even be able to seriously challenge ratings leader Fox in certain hours.
“MSNBC has established a sensibility, a position, a platform,” he said. “MSNBC stands for something and MSNBC is really the place to go for progressives and people who are looking for smart, thoughtful analysis. We’re growing, and we’re putting real effort behind it.”
___
Online:
http://www.msnbc.com
___
EDITOR’S NOTE — David Bauder can be reached at dbauder(at)ap.org
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Comments (104)
llotus
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:19pmI would have thought cnn would be ahead of msnbc.I dont watch either. Lotus.
Report Post »Outlaw_Josey_Wales
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 6:42pmI thought the sewing channel on public television would have better ratings than MSNBC.
Report Post »ThoreauHD
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:48pmSo having an insane audience doesn’t beget loyalty. Shocker there.
Report Post »Randyrocker
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:34pmMSNBC is tanking and was tanking from the very first day they went on air.
Report Post »Keith Olbermann is a horrible relic of a sad past that need not be repeated. Better he fade into the sunset and leave the media alone. Maybe he can work for the yet to be built Obama Library in 2012 that will only have the two books written by Barack Obama and William Ayers his ghost writer within it, Olbermann could be the caretaker protecting the only two books in the Obama Library ‘The Audacity of Hope’ and ‘Dreams From My Father,’ why he could even where white gloves with a monogram, that has the Presidential Seal that says underneath it, ‘I once was President’, and Olbermann can have on the lapel of his Library Jacket an MSNBC logo with an inscription that reads, ‘I once was a mouthpiece for this once upon a time President.’
Randyrocker
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:37pmwhere is wear
Report Post »UpstateNYConservative
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:48pm@Randyrocker
…Keith Olbermann is a horrible relic of a sad past that need not be repeated…
_____________________
Actually, Randy, Olbie is of the present–the way liberals are now. Too, they have always been like this. The difference I find, across the decades, is that they feel more safe to come into the open as they are and have always been.
If anything among the Left is old, it’s their dogged adherence to Marxism. Old Karl, and all liberals, are SO 19th Century…
Report Post »Randyrocker
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:56pm@UPSTATENYCONSERVATIVE
Report Post »I concur.
UpstateNYConservative
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:12pm@Randyrocker
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:56pm
Some things are timeless, like our Constitution that declares and has sought putting into practice the concept that all men are created equal, and thereby deserve and shall enjoy every opportunity to be free and profit from their own labor.
Marx, and modern liberals, are stuck according his little tome. I see the Manifesto as a speed bump to the advancement of human history and Man himself. That foul little scribbling is to what liberals adhere, leaving them 200 years behind. If we can keep our Republic another century, liberals will then be 300 years behind.
Funny to me, but…liberals think themselves so far ‘advanced’.
Report Post »Thanatos144
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:24pmThey would get better ratings if they told the truth more often.
Report Post »last frontier
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:20pmThe women that’s trying to look and act like Fred Savage has been carrying the water for MSNBC for some time now.
Report Post »SHOWMESTATEGUY
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:15pm“msnbc’s ratings did not drop after olbermann left”. Well, it’s hard to go lower when you are already at the bottom of the ocean.
Report Post »UpstateNYConservative
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:15pmI hate saying this, given my (low) opinion of liberals as a sub-species, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least that MSNBC is doing better without Olbermann.
Report Post »trooper
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:59pmEXTERMINATE the liberals and things would improve “across the board” oh, needless to say, obama has to go along with all of his commie, homosexual, marxist, dump punk youth followers.
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:13pmYou’re probably a plant from the left.
Report Post »betterthantv
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:44pm“We are not a rubber stamp, and it would be wrong for anybody to imply otherwise,”
Now that’s funny!
Report Post »Sharon White
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:39pmI lost all respect I had left for that man after he sat there on his show for a full hour blaming Sarah Palin for the shooting in Tucson
Report Post »tifosa
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:39pmContrary to popular theblazer belief, MSNBC is not to the left what Fox is to the right, a PAC.
Report Post »betterthantv
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:45pmIf your going to make ridiculous comments like that, at least back it up. You have no clue what you are talking about.
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:10pmI remember when I had my first beer too TIF.
Report Post »michael48
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:49pmtif…stuck on “das kapital” and “rules for radicals”…
Report Post »Cold War Vet
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:36pm@ TIFOSA
Why don’t you leave? Go glitter somebody.
Report Post »Devil Dog 7175
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:37pmNo Dip??? No wonder… no one watches any way… DUH.
Report Post »Howard Ino
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:13pmGotta love good comedy!!!
Report Post »Mr. Oshawott
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:33pmIs it any wonder why I never watch MSNBC these days?
Report Post »DarthBatman
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:25pmAre you folks talking about television????
Great.
Never mind that the first steps to making gold and silver illegal are under way…
http://www.zerohedge.com/
No, really, t.v. is more important.
Report Post »jakartaman
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:23pmPeople have to sh-t somewhere!
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:19pmI’m happy for him and his next to fail career move. I hate it when a clown is out of work. I like happy clowns, not sad, pathetic ones. Keith is my #1 Clown. ESPN!, will you pleeeease take him back where he belongs? YOU SIR! Are the worst news man in the world! Go put on some pants goofball.
Report Post »NobamaNetwork
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:13pmDoes anyone actually watch MSNBC, and if so, why? America is such a tolerant place, and so is freedom of speech. One of the best parts of America is having the ability to change the channel anytime you want.
Report Post »starman70
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:36pmHow can you tank when you are already at the bottom of the tank? In a septic tank, what sinks to the bottom? Ok, what does the “S” in mSnbc stand for? Questio n asked – - – answer given>
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:12pmAs long as their are leftist haters out there and the likes of Rachelle MadCow, there will always be an MSNBC……….Let’s get over it!
Report Post »saneromeo
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:10pmThis guy thinks his name is Uber-man, doesn’t he? I wonder what size dress he wears?
Report Post »Sam Brown
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:04pmeerrrr aaahhh who is Olbermann?
Report Post »reconmarine
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:03pmFOX is going to tank alot more once Glenn Beck leaves. Then they’re stuck with the arrogant talking head, O’Reily.
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:08pmYeah, I used to be a fan of O‘Reilly’s, now he seems weak, somebody either got to him or it’s senility creeping in.
Report Post »BernieKittyCat
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 8:50amI thought I was the only one who felt that way about O’Reilly!
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:02pm“She really has elevated the discussion and is in many ways the model that we want for cable news,” Griffin said.
WTF???
Her “SCHTICK” is nothing more than a HATE-FILLED CLOWN full of VILE and VITRIOL and HYPERBOLE. This is “THEIR MODEL”??? ohhh, that is REALLY SAD.
Between Madcow and Heir Ubermeister, they elevate the “news” to the level of THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER in video format.
Their only appeal is to the hate-filled activist socialist democrat twenty-somethings. Whose primary source of disposable income is likely to be mommy and daddy’s college allowance.
I’m trying to decide between, “yuck” and “zzzzz”.
they are simply irrelevant.
The lack of numbers change indicates you could replace any of them with any other hate-monger and you wouldn’t lose the socialist democrat kool-aid drinkers.
Report Post »GeorgieJo
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:23pmRachel Madcow is a female? version of Olbydork
Angry hyperbole and plain old Enquirer sthick
CuppaJoe/Meeka show is just plain stupid
Meeka does so many eyerolls (esp when Palin is mentioned) she needs to be in a stunt plane
PensacolaJoe needs to stop SPEAKING for Republicans because he drank that lefty moonbatty koolaid years ago
LarryO’Socialist is also angry and IMHO needs a straight jacket and a shot of thorazine NOW
EddieShultzy after calling Laura Ingraham a “right wing slut” should have NEVER returned to LSDNBC
He is living proof of what that channel represents….LOWLIFES
Andrea Greenspan Mitchell is looking tired these days and who could compete with smart wonderful Megan Kelly?
May sound nuts but NBC must have ALL their anchors down a glass of koolaid before miking up
Anyone BUT OBUMMER 2012
Report Post »DaddyDave
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 3:02pmThe last time I listened to Maddow was when she interviewed Weiner. It was such a softball interview, she let him get away with saying it may be him, cause images can be manipulated….. She let him dance away with no serious inquiry. It was disgusting. Almost as disgusting as when Obama went on Oreilys Factor.
But not quite as bad, because at least Maddow doen’t even attempt to show she is non-biased, or even a journalist, so thats what I expect from her. I was far more dissapointed in Oreily.
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 12:52pmIt’s elementary… Infinitesimal – Zero = Infinitesimal.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 12:51pmThey are tanking anyway.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:58pmEvidently not. Did you not read the article? Fox is down, MSNBC and CNN are closing in. Of course, most people are contentedly watching Idol and Dancing with the Stars.
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:15pmLoyd Cracko – Slick Willie has the report, right above in a link, did you look at it? Apparently not, LOL!
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:18pmBy the way, I got rid of cable over a year ago and the things I’ve learned since then, well let’s just say, I was in a daze before, that stuff really does rot your brain.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:03pm@Bob R Oathkeeper:
Indeed about the cable; dumped mine almost two years ago as the cost was rising more than the time to watch it was diminishing…not cost effective. Have enjoyed doing more net and library research and radio listening around the world.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 6:38pmBob_R_Oathkeeper:
Report Post »Slick Willie’s link shows Fox still leading–no real surprise there. It says nothing about who is losing (Fox) and who is gaining (MSNBC and CNN).
PrfctlyFrank
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 12:49pmBig Fat surprise that!! olbermans viewers don’t even miss him.. Of course the other one hasn‘t answered the phone but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad eh keith??
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:08pmPMSNBC makes great schtick. Every once in a while you just have to tune into that hotbed of loonies for the comic relief. This washed up grammer school sports reporter, is just about as funny as the Comic in Chief. . All iI hear is rimshots at the end of each of Barry’s sentences.
Report Post »Anybody but Barry 2012
Tear Em Up
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:08pmHow did this moron get his own show anyway??? His pseudo-intellectual melodrama has more than worn itself out…..I give Gore’s network 2 years. Anyone care to take the over on that?
Report Post »chazman
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:21pmAl Gore and Current TV will have to PAY advertisers to advertise on that stupid network. What a joke!When all is said and done, Gore and Olberman will feel as though they’ve just had their heads kicked in. Yeah, mighty powerful headache, huh, boys? Liberal Marxism can only fail in America, and I’m here to see that it does!!!
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:31pmWith my libby friends I would talk about Olbermann or Matthews and they would be like “who?” Funny how they don’t watch msnbc either. Yet sadly, they get all of their news from Stewart and Colbert.
Report Post »Bear
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:34pmWhat a Buffoon! They should have put him on the children‘s Cartoon Network but that would have made America’s kids cry! Any one that watches this Moron really needs a life,,he is not even funny or smart for looking up big words before his scripted show to sound elite among the commoners,,,F’n ReEtArD! Go pretend your relevant with a network that will carry you for a few years despite your awful ratings,,go ahead and vomit your progressive puke across the air waves like any one listens you stupid,Liberal,Hippie Moron! Your a wash up NEVER- has been you Socialist punk!
Report Post »CatB
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:42pmI hear CBS evening news did the same thing without Katie Couric …. People are rejecting these progressives and their mean and nasty and might I say vile agenda.
TEA!
Report Post »Slick Willie
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:54pmFor up to date ratings see:
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/06/17/cable-news-ratings-for-thursday-june-16-2011/95898/
Report Post »SPOT_OF_TEA
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:00pmSeriously though,how much lower could they go?
Report Post »par4thecourse
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:06pmnbc should go down also, they just left “under God” out of the pledge recited by school kids to lead off the US Open
Report Post »SlimnRanger
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:09pmFriends do not let friends watch MSNBC,I would be afraid of catching a disease if i watched them
Report Post »MidWestMom
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:59pmThe problem is not what “news” or “message” is given by any network, show, newspaper, blog, etc.
The problem is the apathy of the American people who blindly accept information from any source & don’t bother to take the time to research on their own before deciding what stance they take on any issue.
As far as I know, Glenn Beck is the only one on any network who consistently urges viewers to “do your own research”.
Report Post »Lotus503
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:05pmWhen you’re at the very bottom of the ratings heap, it’s a bit hard to go lower.
Report Post »Carl1 Supports Israel
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:24pmOlbermann was to MSNBC, Like a constipated man taking a enema. The first pile you get rid of don’t mean your not still full of ****!
Report Post »GadsdenPatriot
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:58pmHow can you get any lower than bottom?
Report Post »obama-mecca-me-sick
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 6:50pmMSNBC stands for something??? Yes it does. Its where all the progressives get air time to rattle on about everything wrong with America. Its where they distort our history and call the majority of the viewers names and insults. If any viewer doesnt share their views or disagrees with Obama’s progressive policies we are racist, greedy, uneducated and un America. We are to be ashamed for loving the Constitution , being Christian , white , conservative, or a capitalist. They stand up for blacks , women and gays unless they are conservative blacks, women and gays. MSNBC stands for the destruction of American values and the promotion of anarchy. And yet they are proud.
Report Post »WeDontNeedNoStinkingBadges
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 8:00pmKeith Olber-who?
Report Post »silentwatcher
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 1:47amAn EXCEPTIONAL example of hiring the handicapped.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 11:33amI think the more interesting trend is CNN and MSNBC up and FOX news down. A more than 20% swing. Maybe people are deciding that miss-information and blatant ideology isn’t really consistent with Fair and Balanced.
Report Post »yougottabekidding
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 1:08pmJRook
NAME IT!
Report Post »How do you justify things like your government giving people money so they can make money by burning our food and the price of our food going up and creating a shortage? Or do I pay for your food and you don‘t care if it’s going up. Are you someone that lives in public housing that has been built and torn down and rebuilt and now has got to be torn down (yet again)cause its not fit to be lived in?
Or are you one of the ones that complains our schools in the inner cities are terrible. Why is that? I sure there are some very smart kids there that are not getting their opportunity but not for the reasons you give. Get the idiots that do not want to learn out of there that gives others a chance to learn. No child left behind my butt. You are not going to gain anything you are going to lose everything
WeDontNeedNoStinkingBadges
Posted on June 21, 2011 at 2:30amOlber-who?
Report Post »Angeli
Posted on June 21, 2011 at 3:47pmHow long can Far Left Liberals speak against Conservatives? It’s so funny that they even have an audience, the forked tongue rhetoric..doesn’t that get old with them thinking everyday how to go after a side that is scaring them? It’s put downs 24 hrs. a day that is all they have..I think a comedy show would be best as the main title of each? Funny I don’t see that on the other side if we can call it that way, they go about their business without attacks and have no need to undermine the losing Liberals, they just aren’t worth it. Howard Dean the other day, my goodness pathetic doesn’t even fit his words were laughable against the thriving TEA PARTY! NBC, MSNBC and now one of them got a top spot at CBS,no wonder she got White House correspondence they know who to get for the dirty work, here comes the dirt. When you‘re winning you don’t heed the mean spirited talk like NPR an the rest..SAD FOR THEM…IT’S CALLED FEAR! “2012”
Report Post »