MSNBC's ratings have a hit a 7-year low amid the recent series of scandals that have rocked President's Barack Obama's administration. Fox News has seen an uptick in viewership, with its second-best week of the year thus far, according to Nielsen data.
As the White House scrambled to respond to a string of scandals in recent weeks, executives at left-leaning cable news network MSNBC have watched as fewer and fewer people tune in.
For the week of May 13-17,
MSNBC experienced its least-watched and lowest-rated total-day results of the year last week, with on average just 350,000 viewers overall and just 94,000 in the coveted 25-54 demo, Deadline reported Monday.
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The last time the network experienced such poor ratings was in 2006, during the week of June 26 - July 2 when 83,000 individuals in the 25-54 demo tuned in, Nielsen reported.
Across the board, Fox News dominated MSNBC last week.
Fox News' "The Five" received nearly four times as many viewers as MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" in the 5 p.m. time slot, while Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier," had more than twice as many viewers as MSNBC's "Politics Nation with Al Sharpton" in the 6 p.m. time slot.
Compared with 2012's week of May 14 to May 18, MSNBC’s total day results were down 17% in viewers overall and 22% among the 25-54 demo, Deadline reports.
In contrast, Fox News, the No. 1 cable news network, has seen its ratings increase as news of Obama's scandals have developed.
During the week of May 13-17, Fox News had 1.491 million total day viewers and 283,000 in the 25-54 demo, Deadline reports. Fox News saw its best ratings week since the start of 2013, second only to the week of the Boston Marathon bombings.
In comparison to MSNBC's declining numbers from last year, Fox News has seen its ratings rise year-to-date by 31 percent in total day viewership and 17 percent in its primetime audience.
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While MSNBC might be suffering as a result of the White House' scandals, Obama appears to have weathered the storms of a possible Benghazi cover-up, IRS' targeting of conservative organizations, and the Department of Justice's secret seizure of Associated Press Phone Records.
In a recent CNN and ORC International poll,
53 percent of Americans still approving of the president's overall job performance, showing an increase of two percentage points from April in the same poll.
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