MSNBC’s The ReidOut Debuts With Monday Overall Ratings Win, Grows Viewers in the Demo in First Week

MSNBC’s new 7:00 p.m. show, The ReidOut, scored an overall ratings win for its debut on Monday, thanks to blockbuster guest list that included both the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nominees. And while the show consistency placed third in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic during its first week, it grew its share of this key audience by nearly 15 percent from Monday to Thursday.

In its inaugural broadcast on Monday, Joy Reid’s show took first with 2.63 million total viewers, besting the 2.14 million viewers for Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum and the 1.33 million for CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront. The ReidOut came out strong with two huge names in Democratic politics, featuring both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton in the first half hour of its existence.

The show continued this booking strategy throughout its first week, with an emphasis on bringing on a diverse list of progressive and Democratic heavy hitters, including Senator — and Biden VP shortlist candidate — Kamala Harris and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday, Rep. Maxine Waters and former Obama Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former 2020 Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg  and liberal gadfly and filmmaker Michael Moore on Thursday.

Despite the strong premiere showing, The ReidOut slipped to 2.14 million viewers on Tuesday, 2.02 million on Wednesday, and 2.10 million on Thursday — good enough to constantly outpace CNN, but falling short of Fox News in the time-slot.

In the demo, the show easily outperformed the generic 7:00 p.m. hour of programming MSNBC had been running before giving Reid her show. But it still struggled against its competition, even on its debut night, The ReidOut‘s 285,000 A25 – 54 viewers fell behind The Story’s 334,000 viewers and OutFront‘s 384,000 viewers. That pattern repeated itself through the show’s first four days, with MSNBC trailing behind its rivals in the demo. However, the MSNBC show did noticeably grow its audience in the demo as the week progressed, with its Thursday numbers in the demo reaching 325,000. That wasn’t good enough to get MSNBC out of third place, but it made for a much closer ratings battle on that day, as Fox News (352,000) and CNN (369,000) beat it by a significantly narrow margin than earlier in the week.

Whether or not The ReidOut can maintain this momentum in the demo and grow its overall audience remains to be seen, but the first few looks at the show suggest the 7:00 p.m. hour of cable news just got a lot more competitive.