MSNBC's 2013 woes continued in July, as the liberal network posted across-the-board declines in total day and primetime viewership compared to a year ago, finishing in fourth place in total viewers (380,000, 137,000 A25-54) and third in primetime (583,000, 202,000 A25-54) in the cable news ratings.
Compared to July 2012, MSNBC fell 12 percent in total viewers and 4 percent in the A25-54 demographic in total day and 18 and 9 percent, respectively, in primetime, TVNewser reports. All In With Chris Hayes, which replaced The Ed Show in April, has been a bust, and other primetime programming has declined as well:
"All In with Chris Hayes" was down -27% in Total Viewers and -15% in A25-54 viewers compared to July 2012, when "The Ed Show" aired at 8pm ET. "The Rachel Maddow Show" was down -19% in Total Viewers and -20% in the A25-54 demographic, and "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" was down -29% and -27%, respectively.
Among the month's lowlights was Maddow, generally the network's highest-rated pundit, losing to HLN's Dr. Drew July 9 in addition to traditional time slot winner Sean Hannity of Fox News.
Also, in spite of wall-to-wall coverage of the George Zimmerman murder trial, MSNBC finished a distant fourth behind HLN, CNN and Fox News when the country tuned in for the verdict July 13.