It's no secret that the liberal MSNBC cable channel is in freefall in both ratings and the important demographic of viewers from 25 to 54 years old, and one of the hosts most likely to face the chopping block is the anchor of the All In With Chris Hayes program.
Just when it seemed that things couldn't get any worse for Hayes, his series had its worst week since the show debuted in April 2013, averaging only 74,000 viewers in that demo during the week of March 16.
“Those numbers were the lowest average during the 8 p.m. weeknight hour in over a decade,” Brian Flood noted in an article on the TV Newser site. “The last time MSNBC performed so poorly in that slot was back in February of 2005.”
“Nevertheless, while he was sinking in that particular demographic, every day last week, Hayes still beat CNN’s Anderson Cooper in total viewers,” noted John Nolte, editor-at-large of the Breitbart website.
In fact, the best news MSNBC received during that week was the fact that the channel still beats the Cable News Network during prime time, Nolte added. “In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demo, CNN is getting shellacked by Fox News and edging a sinking MSNBC.”
It's not hard to determine why All In is tanking. Just watch a segment from Wednesday evening in which the liberal host brought on a liberal guest so they could both hammer Ted Cruz, the Republican senator who had just announced his candidacy for president in the 2016 election.
Using the slogan “Better off Ted?” the host growled:
I think there's something fascinating about Cruz for a number of reasons. One is that here's a guy who's sort of running as the kind of folksy kind of populist who has “checked every box of the meritocratic elite.”
Princeton undergrad, Harvard Law, big appellate clerkship, Supreme Court clerkship, fancy law firm, his wife works at Goldman-Sachs. I mean, they are the elite of the elitely elite, and this is the guy who's going to come to America and say: “I'm the guy. I'm one of you.”
Hayes began the segment with a clip showing Cruz as he made his announcement on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia: “Imagine in 2017, a new president signing legislation repealing ever word of ObamaCare.”
Of course, Hayes then described the conservative official as “the man who helped shut down the government to try to stop ObamaCare” and “is still intent on killing it.”
“But Ted Cruz is running for president now, and Ted Cruz's wife” -- whose first name is Heidi -- “has taken unpaid leave from her awesome job at Goldman-Sachs,” an American multinational banking firm, “to help out with the campaign, which means guess what?”
“Ted Cruz needs health insurance,” Hayes gloated.
He then showed a video of Cruz stating: “One of the good things about ObamaCare is that the statute provided that members of Congress would be on the exchanges without subsidies, just like millions of Americans.”
“He doesn't have much choice,” the liberal host noted before stating:
The way the law is written, members of Congress who don't get insurance from Medicare or a spouse are required to enroll in ObamaCare, and that provision itself was the result of a dumb rhetorical bluff in which Republicans said to their Democratic colleagues: “Well, if you love ObamaCare so much, why don't you marry it by requiring it for Congress?”
To which Democrats said: “OK, fine. Fine. Let's do that.”
“But I guess Ted Cruz will change all that when he repeals every word of ObamaCare and kicks his own family off its health insurance,” Hayes continued.
The host then introduced EMILY’s List spokeswoman Jess McIntosh, who declared: “I'm really excited that we're actually talking about a non-hypothetical candidate. Now we can talk about the presidential campaign because it has started.”
She added that Cruz and other GOP candidates “are going to fight over the incredibly social conservative piece of the Republican [pizza] pie right now. I'm looking forward to this all around.”
Hayes also criticized the Texas senator as “inauthentic in odd moments, so overly performative.”
To prove his point, the host showed part of an interview in which Cruz was asked what kind of music he likes.
He replied that his taste in music was forged during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “I didn't like how rock music responded,” but the people in country music came together, which Cruz said appealed to his “gut level.”
“Are -- are you kidding me?” Hayes asked incredulously. “This is a question meant to get off politics. Hey, what do you like? What kind of music do you listen to?”
“I don't think anybody in the country is going to see a music question as a moment to get divisive about 9/11,” McIntosh added.
Is it any wonder why this program is about to be canceled?
