MSNBC’s ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ struggles without namesake host, sheds viewers across the board

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Media top headlines February 14

In media news today, CNN changes a headline comparing Joe Rogan’s use of the N-word to Jan. 6, MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan suggests Supreme Court expansion a step to fight COVID, and NBC confronts ‘difficult Olympic rating amid China’s ‘complicated’ relationship with the rest of the world.

MSNBC’s "The Rachel Maddow Show" shed at least 20% of viewers across the board during the namesake host’s first week of a temporary hiatus that left the network with a massive hole during a key hour of programing. 

Ali Velshi filled in for Maddow during the first week of her time away but failed to draw the audience that MSNBC’s biggest star typically attracts. Instead of alternate programming, MSNBC has continued to brand its 9 p.m. hour as "The Rachel Maddow Show," but with a series of rotating hosts. 

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Velshi’s version of "The Rachel Maddow Show," averaged 1.6 million viewers from Feb. 7-10 for a 24-percent drop compared to the previous week when Maddow hosted. Velshi lost 21% of Maddow’s January audience.   

Rachel Maddow will be off MSNBC for several weeks, taking a hiatus to work on other projects until April.

Velshi also shed 61% of the audience "The Rachel Maddow Show" pulled in during the same week in 2021 when liberal viewers were glued to coverage of the Capitol riot fallout and President Biden's first weeks on the job. 

Velshi also struggled in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, dropping 22% compared to last week and 75% compared to the same week in 2021. 

Last week marked the worst demo performance for "The Rachel Maddow Show" during a non-holiday week since the week of Dec. 14, 2015. The only times it had a smaller weekly audience occurred the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day in 2021 and 2015. 

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Fox News’ 9 p.m. ET timeslot competition, "Hannity," averaged 2.9 million viewers to outdraw Velshi’s hosting of "The Rachel Maddow Show" by 81%. However, MSNBC wasn’t the worst-performing liberal network in the timeslot despite Velshi’s struggles. 

CNN’s 9 p.m. hour, which is also lacking a permanent host in the wake of Chris Cuomo’s ousting, averaged only 566,000 with substitutes Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon to trail "Hannity" by a staggering 409%.

Ali Velshi filled in for Rachel Maddow during the first week of her hiatus but failed to draw the audience that MSNBC’s cash cow typically attracts. 

Maddow announced that she would be off MSNBC for several weeks, taking a hiatus to work on other projects until April. She hinted that other extended absences could be in her future, and it has been reported that she’s looking to scale back her daily program because of professional burnout. 

"We’re just taking it one step at a time," Maddow told viewers.

Maddow has been the network’s most-watched host for years and CNN has shown that viewers don’t stick around when a popular program is replaced with rotating bit players. 

Rachel Maddow has hinted that other hiatuses could be in her future.  (Photo by Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

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"The 9 p.m. hour in all of television is usually a tentpole for the entire primetime lineup," DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox News Digital when Maddow announced her plans. 

"That CNN and MSNBC are both now floundering in that time slot is really a drag on their entire primetime," McCall added. "That both CNN and MSNBC are now struggling in a key time slot indicates that both channels not only have weak benches of talent, but that they also failed to plan ahead and have alternative hosts prepared to step up to the plate."