Ouch, that’s gonna leave a mark!

>One solution could be to build up the dayside hours with more personality-driven news.

They did. It failed. They went back.

Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

Could you please release the numbers for midnight to 6am.

ouch. i’d say it’s time to pull the plug. those numbers are just too embarrassing.

Hey Steve, this is neat – you guys should post the daytime numbers more often.

I know its just a one day sample, but I found two things interesting:
-Ratigan’s big jump at 4pm…not surprising I guess, since he’s the only person worth watching on MSNBC during the day
-That massive drop from 10am – 11am on Fox News…..wonder why that is? I guess Scott/Skinner aren’t really a big draw (since Megyn seems to pick up viewers when she starts)

The ratings are actually smaller than they appear, when you factor in the entire population of the country, and the fact that CBS, NBC, and ABC get far more viewers.

MSNBC has no long-term future. It deals in propaganda not news, and only the most zealous fellow travelers want their information pre-screened by the thought police.

What is that horribly ugly creature you have posted for this article?

Fow, fleixw, you just summed up Fox News also! Good job!

@felixw the problem with that theory is that MSNBC opinion programming is at night not during the day and there is no question that, like it or not, early prime and prime time are working. Sure its down a bit and no its not doing Fox News numbers but its a financial and practical success using any remotely objective statistics. Furthermore, Morning Joe’s numbers don’t necessarily reflect its impact. That show is watched by all the movers and shakers in NY and DC and, I would argue, the country. . . which translates into advertisers (think Starbucks).

Sure MSNBC will continue to work on Dayside but anyone who says that MSNBC (on the whole) in the past five years has not become a real success story is either too blinded by politics or isn’t paying attention.

Like i’ve been saying MiserableSlimyNutBuffoonCircus executives need to explain their new soon to be owner Comcast the business model, their going for, that shows progress liberalism sells.??!! Air America , Newsweek, NYT, and many other liberal outlet are epic fails .Your ratings are horrid!!Krank Goobermann , Roach Maddcow and the rest of the klowns, have such a small audience cause mainstream America is Centrist not whacky ultra left!   MSNBC= jokers & posers all day

MSNBC is Straight News from 9 to 5. No Bias. It shows that people want their Bias even during the daytime. Look at Fox. They have more bias during the day then anyone else. Then they mix it up with one hour of straight news and 1 or 2 hours of bias. 2 to 1 ratio of bias on fox. So therefore MSNBC could put more bias driven programming during the day. I don’t think they will because daytime they pride themselves for having straight news. This all began durring the Bush years because of the split in the country. Half likes the right and half likes the left. We are just going to be this way for many years to come. So the cable news outlets are going to have to adapt.

Your saying brewer, hall, and the suspended David shuster, Andrea Mitchell , the fired Carlos, having Ed Schultz subing in from time to time is straight news?? You sir/ma’am are a lib hack , who doesn’t see the spin they give off , cause your chugging the Obama koolaid.

“MSNBC is Straight News from 9 to 5. No Bias.”

Andrea Mitchell does all she can to trash Conservatives, that is why I no longer watch her show. I had no idea so many people feel the same way.
‘

Morning Joe is an incredibly, incredibly good program. I wish it had a late-night rerun.

Dan Abrams says:
May 14, 2010 at 11:44 am

…the problem with that theory is that MSNBC opinion programming is at night not during the day …

Come on Dan, that’s not true.

Ratigan is at 4… that’s considered “daytime,” and is very opinionated.

And how can “Andrea Mitchell Reports” at 1pm be considered anything other than an opinion program?

Furthermore, when you have statements from Contessa Brewer about the Times Square attempted attack on a left-wing radio program (“…I get frustrated and there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country…“) to suggest that there isn’t a prevalent ideology throughout all programs is disingenuous.

I know this has something to do with David Shuster’s suspension. His wit and style was fantastic & all of his substitute anchors are definitely not as good as he was.

The guy in the picture looks like a ‘Hair Club for Men’ customer.

The trial of opinion during the daytime with Ratigan, etc a year back is why MSNBC daytime is hurting right now. MSNBC has a hard line to straddle by taking the left in primetime which has proven well, but honnoring NBC news during daytime with general news. That’s the single-most issue here. Expanding opinion shows into daytime like they’ve tried a year ago failed because they tried to seek an audience that was there for straight news, and not opinion. But as a viewer ( and someone who works in TV) they need to change these things:

1.) Every hour should not be recycled rundowns. There were acouple of months that you could watch hour to hour the same stories and packages, repeated with the exception of breaking news. It’s lazy, and shows.

2.) Stop putting time caps on segments and interviews. If the conversation is heated and going good, then buck the trend and cut out a band aid package. Sure, people will say attention spans of americans are short, which is true, but those viewers aren’t newsers or political junkies, -they’re watching hln. Morning Joe sets the lead, for the day and attracts high income viewers. Try to keep those viewers.

3.) Have confidence in your anchor roster. When Chris jansing was sent west, just before they tried “primetime in daytime”, that was a symbolic announcement that MSNBC was getting out of the news business and joining fox 24/7 in idiology news. I’m happy their finally using her on the mothership, but they need to have her anchor an hour from Cali once a day to signal a refocus back onto general news.

Move Alex Witt to weekdays. She has a great delivery, and there’s a reason why she pulls good numbers on the weekend. She keeps it interesting.

Use Monica Novonty. She’s a junior Jansing, Ms’s new Morales and handles breaking news/politcal interviews great. But for whatever reason she is never used for her full potental and it’s a shame.

Hire back Alison Stewart. Primetime viewers reconize her, and she keeps it interesting.

Finally, look into hiring new anchors from local affliates who are highly personalble and have a great delivery like Darren Kramer from WTNH in CT for example. (I’m not darren Kramer)

After producing there’s not much else you can do to spice up news except have someone interesting deliver it.

Anyone who thinks Andrea Mitchell is a liberal talking head is just demonstrating their ignorance of liberal beliefs. She’s on the side of Wall Street and big business, as befits her choice of husbands. Also, she’s incredibly soporific. I can barely stay awake when she’s on the air. She may have a reputation of being a good journo, but I think it’s overrated and only exists because of her longevity. She’s a failure as a show anchor.

FWIW, I think MSNBC screwed up in benching Shuster. He was polarizing, yes, but he was entertaining. And when he and Tamron Hall hosted together, they had great chemistry. If you don’t like news w/ a liberal slant, you wouldn’t like them, but you also probably aren’t watching MSNBC, but Fox. So, MSNBC should embrace their public perception and give their actual viewing audience what they want to see.

That doesn’t necessarily include Ratigan, who’s more of a weather vane and blowhard, trimming his sails to the wind. And Ed Schultz has his heart in the right place, but his mouth is often elsewhere, and his grasp of the facts is tenuous. He tries to do news w/ opinion and doesn’t succeed at either.

Dan Abrams said

that MSNBC opinion programming is at night not during the day

C’mon, man. You have to realize that when you put idiocy out like this that it will be challenged..and ridiculed. You’re outside of your left wing echo chamber here, so you have to at least try the truth

Dan Abrams:

“anyone who says that the Edsel or New Coke (on the whole) have not become real success stories is either too blinded or isn’t paying attention.”

To hell with it, run prison docs during the daytime, it could only help.

In the market place of ideas, MSNBC is Kwik E Mart…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUYYe4s2BQ

Dan Abrams says:
May 14, 2010 at 11:44 am

MSNBC used to be good. They made terrible decisions (like cancelling your shows), and they became beholden to a lunatic (Olbermann). They became way too partisan, and unwatchable. Even their *straight* news hours are SO biased. I have paid attention, believe me.

Many of the better ones tossed any credibility out the door when they tingled over Obama. And their primary coverage on air spats? ugh!

I like Morning Joe and watch it almost every morning. That is the only show on msnbc that offers calm, rational debate and discussion with differing opinions.

Obviously what msnbc is doing isn’t working. Carrying water for Obama 24/7 and reporters who tingle and swoon just isn’t cutting it. The people are smarter than that. They see it, and they are turning it off.

Seriously. Take Andrea Mitchell – she hasn’t acted like a journalist for three years now, but a swooning teenager and arm of the Obama administration, and NOW she’s irritated that Obama is not treating her like a journalist?

I became hooked on Morning Joe (and Mika–ooo-la-la!) a couple of years ago. But I also don’t buy the idea that the day news isn’t biased. I watch MSNBC. Schuster was probably the worst offender, and he had some tough competition from the likes of Contessa Brewer and Alison Stewart. Ratigan’s liberal politics are obvious as well.

MSNBC’s morning broadcast, anchored by Chris Jansing and featuring Ashleigh Banfield, Lester Holt, Monica Novotny, Alex Witt and Contessa Brewer, were outstanding some years ago.

MSNBC was set up by Jerry Nachmann who was a hell of a good news man. He built the best morning broadcast in Cable news and I would argue the best channel.

Sadly MSNBC has fallen since that time. They went from having Buchanan and Press, Tim Russert and a more reserved Chris Matthews on a couple hours a night with a bit more cut and dry style analysis to the yard sale of opinion journalism they are now. They either kicked their best morning people upstairs to NBC, sent them to affiliates, or outright fired them a la Ashleigh Banfield.

It was once my “go to” morning channel, but no more. I can’t stand to watch it anymore. Even the people they have left of their original cadre have been screwed over by format changes and putting the junior varsity (Chuck Todd, master White House reporter? Really?) in charge of things, led up by the wacko Olbermann. Even Chris Matthews who once was a fine partner for Tim Russert has gone off the deep end and hard news reporting there has suffered tremendously as the opinion arm has taken more and more control over what was once a very fine news channel.

In the morning I watch other news networks to catch up to the events that happened while I slept. I also watch “Red Eye” which I DVR every night, and which is more fun, irreverent and actually balanced than anything MSNBC would ever air in their opinion bloc. Whoever said Morning Joe is the only show MSNBC has worth watching politics wise is right, though Red Eye is hard to match.

MSNBC’s actualy news division has been destroyed, mostly by internal forces, and that is very sad. It really used to be the best news channel on television, and Nachman had a great show of his own too. I miss that MSNBC, it was a really good news organization.

MESSNBC needs to be put out of it’s misery. No one with a brain wants to watch Leftist Nutwads like Contessa Brewer, Keith Olberman and that red headed Fat dude. They are a ZOO of freaks, fruits and nuts! RIP Chrissy Matthews and Co. You SUCK!

Capricex’s commentary is nearly spot on and I agree with almost everything he says, though having Jansing anchor once a week from LA is not feasible for all sorts of reasons.

David Emerson Powell wrote:

“MSNBC’s morning broadcast, anchored by Chris Jansing and featuring Ashleigh Banfield, Lester Holt, Monica Novotny, Alex Witt and Contessa Brewer, were outstanding some years ago.”

You’re conflating different periods of MSNBC history. Brewer was not at MSNBC when Banfield was still an anchor nor was Novotny (as anchor…may have been brought back as Countdown contributor by that point however). Furthermore Holt was never really on mornings much when he started and later he and Banfield were paired on afternoons. Witt wasn’t really a full time M-Fr anchor back then.

“MSNBC was set up by Jerry Nachmann who was a hell of a good news man. He built the best morning broadcast in Cable news and I would argue the best channel.”

You can’t give Nachman all the credit for that. He didn’t hire Banfield. He didn’t hire Jansing. I believe Holt started at MSNBC before Nachman arrived. He may have had a hand in Brewer’s hiring however. But overall your premise is pretty valid. The Nachman years, and continuing into the Kaplan years, saw MSNBC’s dayside newscast at its best. It remained much the same under Abrams. Then things started slipping a bit with NBCU 2.0 while Abrams was still there and escalated after MSNBC moved to 30 Rock and Abrams stepped down.

“once a week from LA” should really read “one hour during the weekday from LA”

Dan, I responded via Twitter but there’s something else I have to point out with your “defense”. Everyone at NBC keeps saying that primetime is for opinion and daytime isn’t but any impartial analysis of daytime shows that’s not always the case and recent MSNBC history emphasizes this. Was hiring Ratigan for daytime not an opinion move? Putting Ed Schultz on to cover straight news? Letting Shuster mix it up with various entities during interviews which would occasionally cross over from journalism into soap box oration? Pairing Matthews and Olbermann to cover major political events? Putting on Maddow and Olbermann to cover the 2008 inauguration?

NBC keeps talking about a firewall between news and opinion but it says one thing while attempting to do another. And dayside news is the worse for it.

Other than that what you say about MSNBC’s “success story” is totally valid, albeit a non-sequitur to Krakauer’s piece. Responding to trolls, partisans, and agitators like @felixw gets one nowhere. They come in with their minds made up and don’t care about inconvenient facts which undermine their purpose.

I’m hardly surprised MSNBC’s ratings are down since David Shuster was suspended in early April. No one could get away with babbling talking points to Shuster, whether his guests were on the right or the left. Shuster always did his homework first and knew the right questions to ask. (Of course, right-wingers hate him for that very reason, but they’re not MSNBC watchers anyhow, so who cares? They can keep on watching Fox.) Until MSNBC’s president gets over himself and starts thinking about what’s good for the network, I predict daytime ratings will continue to slide.

Those of you who would like to see Shuster back, please sign the BRING DAVID SHUSTER BACK petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/NewsFans/petition.html

Yea shuster is a hack artist , when confronted he says he independent.Krank Goobermann takes the cake though.MSNBC is not valid as a source of anything but gas, and Olbermann is a piss-stained loon standing under a flickering streetlamp spouting greasy gouts of Tourette-class idiocy as oddly-colored feces ooze down his left pantleg sullying the pavement where real human beings have to walk.

You liberal New York elites can bash Fox all you want, but they openly admit a right tilt , however you would never see Hannity , Beck or even Bill fill in for daytime news, but msnbc has Ed Schultz doin fill- in ocassionally. By all means continue this joke for the Huff Puff crowd and Daily Kommunist folk.

Lay this one at the feet of Phil Griffin and his petty, vitriolic “indefinite suspension” of Shuster:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/15/866727/-The-R-W-Dorking-of-David-Shuster-w-POLL

>> Dan Abrams (quote): “Like it or not, early prime and prime time are working.”

Really??? Gee, I guess I should ignore the other Mediaite article that I just read a few moments ago, from Glynnis MacNicol, which pointed out that Maddow’s numbers are down nearly 10% and Olbermann’s numbers have dropped a staggering 28%.

When your prime-time lead and supposed star has lost a THIRD of his audience in just one year, I would hardly call that successful or programming that’s “working”.