Poor Jen Psaki. The “circle back” former Biden press secretary has gone from being very good at lying daily about President Autopen and his administration to being very bad at the cable news hosting thing.
Psaki took over MSNBC’s coveted 9 p.m. ET timeslot from Tuesday to Friday this week, as “The Rachel Maddow Show” returned to airing only on Mondays. Maddow had temporarily resumed a five-night-a-week schedule during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration. Previously, Psaki hosted “Inside” on Sundays and Mondays, and now she hosts “The Briefing” during this critical hour, Fox News reported on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Psaki’s show “The Briefing” premiered with 1.2 million viewers, including 139,000 in the key demographic of adults aged 25 to 54. However, her second episode on Wednesday saw a significant drop, attracting just over one million total viewers and only 65,000 in that same demographic. Yikes.
Fox added:
MSNBC’s newest program shed a staggering 53% of its demo viewers compared to the first episode only one day prior. Psaki’s program also lost a whopping 67% of viewers between the ages of 18-49 after only one episode, as “The Briefing” averaged 113,000 on Tuesday and only 37,000 on Wednesday.
MSNBC had much better results at 9 p.m. ET last week with Maddow at the helm, as she averaged 1.9 million total viewers and 141,000 among viewers aged 25-54. Psaki’s second episode managed to shed 46% of those totals among total viewers and 54% in the critical demo.
Psaki’s Wednesday episode was outdrawn by 38 different cable news offerings among the advertiser-coveted demo despite the cushy timeslot. MSNBC’s 9 p.m. ET program was outdrawn by everything Fox News Channel had to offer, along with 13 different CNN shows and seven MSNBC programs.
You have to love the little dig Fox took at its competitors – “…outdrawn by everything Fox News Channel had to offer.” That’s hysterical; but it’s also true. Fox has been the cable news king for years now. But then FNC really dug into Psaki’s psyche: On Wednesday, Psaki’s “The Briefing” also had fewer viewers among adults aged 25-54 than various repeats of “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “The King of Queens,” and “That 70s Show,” along with Nickelodeon’s “Paw Patrol,” Hallmark’s “Reba,” and TLC’s “My Strange Addiction,” and many other basic cable offerings.
Double yikes! When you’re losing out to Nickelodeon, Hallmark, and TLC, you’re just not very good at being on TV and doing that cable news thing. Maybe Psaki has a future in a future Democratic administration — but we seriously hope not because that would be even worse than the viewership of her show.
