According to Politico’s Dylan Byers, MSNBC placed a distant third in the ratings after the Zimmerman trial verdict.
In the 10-11 p.m. hour on Saturday night, when the verdict in, Fox News had 3,682,000 total viewers; CNN had 3,407,000 total viewers and won the coveted demo with 1,716,000 viewers aged 25-to-54.
In the same hour, MSNBC had 1,298,000 total viewers — about one-third of Fox’s total — and a mere 510,000 viewers in the demo. (These are preliminary numbers; finals are in tomorrow.)
I turned over to MSNBC for a while after the verdict Saturday night, mostly because it was likely to be a hot mess. I wasn’t disappointed. During the few minutes I could stand to watch, opinion on MSNBC was across-the-board outrageous outrage. No nuance. No facts. It was surreal.
No one turns to MSNBC for actual news anymore. MSNBC is the urban car chase of cable news, irrelevant to our everyday lives, yet compelling viewing because surely some sort of spectacular crash is always just around the corner.
MSNBC chose Al Sharpton to host its post-verdict coverage. As much as hiring an anti-Semitic hoaxster with blood on his hands says about the network, the fact is, Sharpton’s chief claim to fame during his stint hosting his own show has been…this.
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