IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH: MSNBC and CNN Fight to Dig Out of a Postelection Ratings Hole.

MSNBC averaged 603,000 prime-time viewers from the day after the election through Dec. 8, down by more than half from the network’s year-to-date average through the election, according to Nielsen data. CNN was down 46%, to 401,000 viewers. Meanwhile, Fox News was up 12%, averaging about 2.7 million viewers.

MSNBC and CNN both reported dips for the month following the 2016 election, but they weren’t nearly as steep. CNN’s drop was off a higher baseline.

Partisan viewers “turn away in disgust when it’s the other side having that postelection euphoria,” said Johanna Dunaway, a political science professor and research director of the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship.

Dunaway said Democrats and Republicans grow disenchanted with the media and society when their candidates lose. After Biden won in 2020, Fox News’s prime-time viewership fell by 6%. Following Barack Obama’s 2012 win against Mitt Romney in the presidential election, Fox News’s prime-time viewership was down 13%.

Nobody wants to lose 13% or even just 6% of their business. But Fox’s 2012 and 2020 losses were a drop in the ratings bucket compared to CNN and MSNBC this year.