As NewsBusters has been reporting for several months, MSNBC's ratings have been in a freefall.
After attracting its lowest number of viewers in seven years a few weeks ago, the so-called "news network" is finishing out May with staggering year-over-year declines.
As the Hollywood Reporter observed Wednesday, MSNBC is now in fourth place behind Fox News, CNN, and HLN:
Averaging 539,000 viewers in primetime and 175,000 viewers in the adults 25-54 demographic, MSNBC suffered double-digit drops from last May -- down a respective 20 and 19 percent. Losses were less substantial in total day, down 10 percent to an average 346,000 viewers and down 7 percent to 115,000 adults 25-54, while all other nets pulled growth in multiple categories.
The soft start for All In With Chris Hayes has not helped. Hayes, down 32 percent in total viewers from The Ed Show last May, has offered a poor lead-in for MSNBC's primetime flagship, The Rachel Maddow Show, at 9 p.m. The show delivered its lowest-rated month since it debuted in September 2008 (717,000 total viewers) and its second lowest with adults 25-54 (210,000). Maddow was topped by typical time slot victor Sean Hannity and CNN's Piers Morgan.
This all comes on the heels of MSNBC coming in third in April for the first time in two years and March's Pew Research Center study finding 85 percent of the network's reports are opinion rather than news.
It appears that with each passing day, more and more people are realizing this.
When will cable and satellite providers get the point and move MSNBC away from the real news stations on their program guides?
