MSNBC insists that it’s standing by embattled host Ronan Farrow, denying a report Monday that his afternoon program is facing an imminent cancelation.
Mediaite’s Joe Concha cited a “well-placed source” at the left-leaning cable news channel in reporting that “Ronan Farrow Daily” could be yanked in the next month, but MSNBC spokeswoman Diana Rocco told TPM in an email that the report is “not true.”
(A spokesperson for the channel also told Concha that MSNBC remains “fully committed to Ronan.”)
Not even a year old, Farrow’s show has been met with poor reviews and dismal ratings. Although MSNBC hoped that the 26-year-old could bring an injection of youth into its slate of daytime programming, the New York Times reported Sunday that the show’s ratings are actually down 51 percent from the same time slot last year among viewers in the coveted 25-54 age group.
Which means he is.
I hate unnamed sources but I believe this one.
I donno…maybe it’s time to go back to actually covering the news instead of constantly analyzing it and talking about it. Maybe MSNBC could get a lot better ratings if 1) it was covered in every market (unlike FOX, MSNBC is not carried in a lot of markets), 2) they covered news throughout the day- maybe covering certain subjects like LGBT News, Racial Minority News, Women’s News, International News, etc during the day, and 3) limit the talk to 5pm and later.
That’s okay. I don’t even know who Ronan Farrow is.
If MSNBC is trying to catch the youth market, this is a terrible slot. The middle of the day? Aren’t these people working? Or studying? Or eating ice cream?
subzeroepsilon covered your first point in the BillO article here:
“I’ve asked this same question to Comcast, who incidentally also owns MSNBC. They told me that as part of their merger agreement with NBC/Universal, Comcast was to treat NBC-owned channels (e.g. CNBC, MSNBC, NBC Sports, Bravo, USA) as separate entities entitled to no special treatment with regard to carriage fees.
Here in Seattle, you need to have a higher-end digital package (Digital Starter) whereas Fox News can be had on the low-end Digital Economy.
Plus I have a sneaking suspicion that Comcast is not at all upset about this.”