MSNBC darling Rachel Maddow saw her ratings plummet after her much-hyped reveal of President Trump’s tax forms last week turned out to be a colossal nothingburger.
Over 4 million people watched the episode, making it the most popular show on cable Tuesday night. Alas, for MSNBC, the viewers who tuned in didn’t stick around.
The night after Maddow’s embarrassing faceplant, her ratings dropped 36 percent.
That drop was even sharper in the key demographic of 25 to 54-year-olds, the viewership of which fell 54 percent, Sandra Smith reported.
Maddow had breathlessly promoted her scoop on Twitter, and spent most of the show teasing her audience about the contents of Trump’s two-page 1040 form from 2005, which everyone by now knows revealed that he paid $38 million in taxes. That’s 25 percent on a $150 million income, more than former President Barack Obama, NBC parent company Comcast, and limousine socialist Bernie Sanders have paid in taxes .
What did we learn? Then private citizen Trump paid a higher percentage than Pres Obama, Sen Sanders and even NBC's parent company Comcast pic.twitter.com/bG2RUevt3F
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 15, 2017
Maddow received criticism from all sides after she and journalist David Cay Johnston revealed Trump’s tax forms on national television.
Geraldo Rivera said it was Maddow’s “Al Capone’s Vault” moment, referencing a 1986 report in which he opened the mobster’s vault live, to find little of value.
On “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill O’Reilly said Maddow’s broadcast is the latest event in a “circus of ideology and cynicism” surrounding the president.
Even lefty late night talker Stephen Colbert couldn’t resist mocking Maddow with a brutal but funny parody spoofing her hapless misfire.
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