The summer ratings are in and, according to Variety, the news is all bad for left-wing MSNBC. Not only is CNN catching up to the Lean Forward network, compared to this time last year; MSNBC’s primetime ratings have collapsed by a full 22%.
In preliminary Nielsen data for the summer through Sunday, Fox News was averaging 1.85 million viewers in primetime (down 5% from comparable dates a year ago), followed among the news networks by MSNBC (540,000, down 22%), CNN (533,000, up 21%) and HLN (422,000, up 29%).
Among all cable networks in primetime this summer, Fox News ranks seventh in total viewers (USA and TNT top the list). MSNBC is 33rd, CNN is 34th and HLN is running 39th.
Fox News only lost 5% of its primetime viewers over last year, which is expected when you go from an election year to a non-election year. MSNBC’s drop of 22% — nearly a quarter of your audience — is something no one expected. In fact, after Obama’s reelection win, the elite talk was that MSNBC was on the rise and it was Fox News that was in trouble.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC