Morning Joe saw a nosedive in ratings after the hosts revealed their secret Mar-a-Lago meeting with Donald Trump, while the show’s social channels disabled comments to prevent the flood of reactions from fans.
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski dismissed the criticism on their show Tuesday, saying it only proves there is a “huge gap” between “social media and the real world.”
However, if the ratings are to be believed, the real world and social media may not be as disconnected as they think.
Being a morning show that starts at 6am every day, the viewership is expected to increase as the day’s episode progresses.
However, Nielsen ratings show that 145,000 viewers turned off MSNBC at 7 a.m., just after Scarborough and Brzezinski discussed the meeting, while viewership at 6 a.m. rose to 694,000 at 7 a.m.
Additionally, 38% of their audience in the 25 to 54 age group – seen as crucial for the major cable news networks – tuned in.
The show recovered briefly in the 8am hour, with 775,000 viewers, but numbers dropped again to 770,000 at 9am.
As recently as October, she was MSNBC’s morning anchor was on average the same high as 1.14 million viewers during the four hours.
Morning Joe saw a nosedive in ratings after the hosts revealed their secret Mar-a-Lago meeting with Donald Trump, while the show’s social channels disabled comments due to fan backlash
Nielsen ratings show that 145,000 viewers turned off MSNBC in the 7 a.m. hour, just after Scarborough and Brzezinski discussed the meeting, going from 839,000 viewers at 6 a.m. to 694,000 at 7 a.m.
MSNBC’s viewership has already fallen in the week after Donald Trump’s landslide election victory.
Media reporter Aaron Rupar also noted that the show’s social media feeds have disabled all comments.
The Morning Joe stars have defended their controversial meeting with Trump after being criticized by their media colleagues.
“Yesterday I saw for the first time what a huge disconnect there was between social media and the real world, because we were inundated all day with calls from people, literally all over the world, all very positive, very supportive,” Scarborough said on Tuesday . .
“But every now and then I’d get a text or call from someone saying, ‘Oh man, I hope you’re doing well.’ I’d call them back… I’d say, “Are you on Twitter?” And he says, “I am.” I’d say, “Well, I’m not, so we had a good day.”
“We will all do our best and we will all work to build a better America.”
The View’s Ana Navarro was among the media figures who unleashed a blistering on-air tirade in response to the couple’s surprise visit to Mar-a-Lago last weekend.
The political strategist attacked the married MSNBC hosts during their trip to see Trump, calling it “opportunistic” during her rant. She asked if the two had “changed their stripes” because of “who is in power.”
MSNBC’s viewership has already taken a nosedive in the week following Donald Trump’s landslide election victory
Media reporter Aaron Rupar also noted that the show’s social media feeds have disabled all comments
On the MAGA side, Megyn Kelly also went after Scarborough and Brzezinski and told them to “go fuck themselves.”
“Shut the fuck up, you dishonest jokes from fake journalists,” Kelly said Monday, reminding her audience that Morning Joe hosts initially supported Trump’s bid for the presidency in 2016.
“It’s sickening, it’s so stomach-churning,” Kelly added. “They’re so disgusting.”
Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said, “Let’s be clear: Joe and Mika didn’t suddenly see the light, they saw their ratings. They realized they needed Trump to survive.”
Amid the backlash, Morning Joe staffers have insisted the Florida meeting was “f***ing worth it.”
Trump, for his part, told Fox News that he attended the meeting because to make America great again, it is very important, if not essential, to have a free, fair and open media or press.
Trump and the ‘Morning Joe’ stars have had a contentious relationship since the Republican entered politics – resulting in Scarborough leaving the Republican party.
During the 2024 election, Morning Joe repeatedly denounced Trump as a racist, sexist and fascist, telling viewers he did not deserve to be president. At one point, Scarborough said Trump was “acting completely against Hitler” and Brzezinski condemned him for repeating the “dangerous language of infamous fascist leaders.”
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have defended themselves against the backlash after revealing they met with Donald Trump
Brzezinski said Monday that they decided to reach out to Trump for “the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself” because their viewers and “ordinary citizens” have expressed fear following Trump’s election and his recent Cabinet selections.
Scarborough continued, saying the three “discussed many issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retaliation against political opponents and media outlets.”
Trump was a regular contributor to Morning Joe, and Scarborough was an early cheerleader for the billionaire maverick for the 2016 Republican nomination.
But relations soured when Trump won a surprise victory in the Republican primaries and began to look like a serious challenger to Democrats’ Hillary Clinton.
The four-hour morning show became a bastion of the Democratic establishment after Trump’s first term, with President Joe Biden routinely listening in as he did his morning exercises to watch his acolytes promote the party’s talking points.
Now that Trump is in the White House and Scarborough is engaged to co-host Brzezinski, he is beginning to cement his show’s identity as an outpost of opposition to the new administration.