As a Democrat who immersed himself in political news during the presidential campaign, Ziad Ounallah has much in common with many Americans since the election. He has calmed down.
“People are mentally exhausted,” said Aunallah, 45, of San Diego. “Everyone knows what’s going to happen and we’re just taking some time off.”
Television ratings – and now a new survey – illustrate this phenomenon clearly. Nearly two-thirds of American adults say they have recently felt the need to limit their media consumption about politics and government due to excessive pressure, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The survey said a very small percentage of Americans are limiting their news intake about foreign conflicts, the economy or climate change. Politics is in front.
The 47-year-old electrician from Lincoln, Nebraska said that election news on CNN and MSNBC were taking up too much of Sam Goode’s time before the election. “The last thing I want to see right now is a gap,” said Goode, a Democrat and no fan of President-elect Donald Trump.
Survey finds more Democrats than Republicans are turning away from the news
The poll, conducted in early December, found that nearly 7 in 10 Democrats say they are retreating from political news. The percentage is not as high for Republicans, who have reason to celebrate Trump’s victory. Still, nearly 6 in 10 Republicans say they too have felt the need to take some time off, and the share of independents is similar.
The differences are even more stark for TV networks focused on political news.
The Nielsen company said that through December 13, the day after election night, MSNBC’s prime-time viewership averaged 620,000, down 54% from pre-election viewers this year. For comparison over the same period, CNN’s average of 405,000 viewers was down 45%.
Trump fans’ favorite news network, Fox News Channel, averaged 2.68 million viewers, up 13% after the election, Nielsen said. Since the election, 72% of people watching one of those three cable networks in the evening were watching Fox News, compared to 53% before Election Day.
Post-election meltdowns for fans of the losing candidate are not a new trend for networks that are highly recognized for their partisan audiences. MSNBC had similar issues after Trump was elected in 2016. It was the same for Fox in 2020, though it was complicated by anger: Many of its viewers were angry over the network’s crucial election night call of Arizona for the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, and sought alternatives.
MSNBC had its own anger issues “Morning Joe” Viewers were upset that hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with Trump so soon after his victory last month. Yet the show’s ratings have dropped 35% since Election Day, a smaller decline than the network’s prime-time ratings.
CNN says that although it is suffering losses in television ratings, its streaming and digital ratings have remained consistent.
Will political interest increase again when Trump takes office?
MSNBC can take some solace from history. In past years, when depression subsided after election defeat, network ratings boomed. When a new administration takes office, people who oppose it are often looking for a meeting place.
“I will come back after the clown show starts,” Aunallah said. “You have no choice. Whether you want to hear it or not, it’s happening. If you care about your country, you have no choice but to pay attention.”
But the journey may not be easy. MSNBC’s decline is more steep than in 2016; And there is some question about whether Trump opponents will want to be as engaged as they were during his first term. People are also turning away from cable television, with rates continuing to rise, although MSNBC believes it has already bucked this audience-damaging trend.
Polls indicate that Americans generally want to talk to public figures less about politics. After an election season where endorsements from celebrities like Taylor Swift made headlines, the survey found that Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of celebrities, big companies and professional athletes speaking out about politics.
Still, Good is among those exploring other ways to get the news he wants to focus on, including YouTube.
MSNBC is also in the midst of some corporate turmoil that raises questions about possible changes. Parent company Comcast announced last month that the cable network was one of a handful of properties that would be spun off into a new company, giving MSNBC new corporate leadership and severing its ties to NBC News.
Advice for networks that want to see viewers return
Some Americans who have recently drifted off from political news are offered some advice for reconnecting.
For example, Goode said MSNBC will always have a hardcore audience of Trump haters. But if the network wants to expand its audience, “you have to talk about the issues, and you have to stop talking about Trump.”
Kathleen Kendrick, a 36-year-old sales representative from Grand Junction, Colorado, who is a registered independent voter, said she hears a lot of people talking loudly about their political opinions at work. She wants more depth when she watches the news. She said that whatever she sees is one-sided and superficial.
Kendrick said, “You get a story but only part of the story.” “It would be good if you could get both sides and more research.”
Similarly, Ounallah is looking for more depth and variety. “They’re no longer interested in seeing the angry guy sitting on the corner yelling at me,” he said.
“It’s their own fault in a way that I don’t see,” he said. “I thought they spent all their time talking about the election. They made it so much of their focus that when the main event was over, why would people want to watch?”