Psaki bombs: MSNBC’s newest primetime program sheds 53% of viewers from key demo in second episode

MSNBC’s Jen Psaki bombed on Wednesday night. 

Psaki took over MSNBC’s coveted 9 p.m. ET timeslot on Tuesday through Fridays this week as "The Rachel Maddow Show" returned to only airing on Mondays, after Maddow temporarily returned to airing five nights a week during President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. 

Psaki, a former Biden administration press secretary, hosted "Inside" on Sundays and Mondays, and now hosts "The Briefing" at the critical hour. 

On Tuesday, Psaki’s "The Briefing" debuted with 1.2 million viewers and 139,000 in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54, but her second episode on Wednesday plummeted to just over one million total viewers and only 65,000 in the demo. 

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MSNBC’s newest program shed a staggering 53% of its demo viewers compared to the first episode only one day prior. Psaki’s program also lost a whopping 67% of viewers between the ages of 18-49 after only one episode, as "The Briefing" averaged 113,000 on Tuesday and only 37,000 on Wednesday. 

MSNBC had much better results at 9 p.m. ET last week with Maddow at the helm, as she averaged 1.9 million total viewers and 141,000 among viewers aged 25-54. Psaki’s second episode managed to shed 46% of those totals among total viewers and 54% in the critical demo. 

Psaki’s Wednesday episode was outdrawn by 38 different cable news offerings among the advertiser-coveted demo despite the cushy timeslot. MSNBC’s 9 p.m. ET program was outdrawn by everything Fox News Channel had to offer, along with 13 different CNN shows and seven MSNBC programs. 

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On Wednesday, Psaki’s "The Briefing" also had fewer viewers among adults aged 25-54 than various repeats of "Friends," "Seinfeld," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Bob’s Burgers," "The King of Queens," and "That 70s Show," along with Nickelodeon’s "Paw Patrol," Hallmark’s "Reba," and TLC’s "My Strange Addiction," and many other basic cable offerings. 

Psaki also failed to boost her primetime colleagues, as it was MSNBC’s lowest-rated Wednesday from 8-11 p.m. among both total viewers and the demo since January 8, before Trump was sworn in for his second term. 

It was also MSNBC’s lowest-rated 9 p.m. program among the demo on a Wednesday since Alex Wagner managed only 40,000 advertiser-coveted viewers on December 11, 2024. 

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Psaki served as Biden's first press secretary from 2021 until May 2022.

Jemele Hill returns to ESPN's 'Around the Horn' before show's cancellation, jokes about previous firing

ESPN's "Around the Horn" is bringing back some of its old faces before its final show.

ESPN announced the show's cancellation in March, and its last show will be on May 23. So, on Thursday's episode, they brought back Jemele Hill, who anchored SportsCenter for a time before she was canned in 2018.

Hill was let go from the network due to social media posts about President Donald Trump and his supporters during his first presidency.

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During the episode, host Tony Reali and the other panelists had a segment where they reacted to old takes from her, and Hill could not help but laugh at herself.

"I got a little bit nervous when I saw you were pulling up our tweets. Dude, I just came back, man!" she said.

The episode also featured the return of Kate Fagan, who left the network in 2018. Fagan made a plea for "trans kids" in sports.

"I know it's my last time on [the show], and I want to say something worthy of that platform, and that's trans kids deserve to play sports," she said. "Think about what you remember from your time playing sports. Ninety-nine percent of it is finding that jersey for the first time, your favorite number, community, joy, those high-fives. 

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"It's that moment when you have a great play with a teammate. It's the feeling of belonging. And it does not know gender. Trans kids deserve the same as everyone else does… Sports is joy. Sports is humanity. And the more people who have that, the better."

There is no law or order that bans transgender children from participating in sports. Trump signed an executive order in February that prohibits biological males identifying as girls or women from competing against biological females.

Shortly after it was announced the show was ending, former panelist Jay Mariotti, who was a regular on the show until a domestic violence arrest in 2010, said in an interview the show is being canceled because it went "woke."

There are now just 11 episodes left of the show, which is over 20 years old.

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