\n<\/p>\n
The MSNBC panel was awaiting former president Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s Fulton County Jail mug shot, when Rachel Maddow<\/strong> asked her audience to register the gravity of the moment. \u201cI\u2019m saying we should slow down here just for a second, because this is serious stuff for the nation, for who we are as a country,\u201d she said<\/a> last week, as MSNBC aired the photo\u2014the first of any current or former United States president. \u201cThis is not something to take lightly. Our constitutional republic depends on the very basic concept of rule by law, not rule by man,\u201d Maddow continued. It was fitting that Trump looked so angry in the mug shot; despite being the fourth indictment and arrest this year, it was Trump\u2019s first. \u201cHe\u2019s embodying\u2026the avatar for the rage that he has traded off of to become president in the first place,\u201d Joy Reid<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n But not every moment was that earnest on MSNBC that night. Over the course of the segment, which followed everything from Trump\u2019s plane landing in Atlanta to his motorcade to and from the jailhouse, the MSNBC panel\u2014Reid, Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O\u2019Donnell,<\/strong> and Nicolle Wallace<\/strong>\u2014oscillated between analysis, weighty reflection, and, well, schadenfreude. O\u2019Donnell mused, was the \u201cstrawberry\u201d hair color listed in the booking information Trump\u2019s own description? Maddow cast a cheeky glance to her colleagues when she read his listed height: \u201csix-foot-three.\u201d Then came Trump\u2019s weight\u2014listed as 215 pounds\u2014sending the table into hysterics.<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n MSNBC\u2019s talking heads had been given the license to have a little fun. Even when Maddow and others were reflecting on the sheer weightiness of this newscycle\u2014that even a former president can be held accountable under the criminal justice system\u2014a viewer could tell: This panel was relishing every part of it. And, it seems, the viewers are relishing in it all too.<\/p>\n MSNBC has emerged as the network of choice for viewers looking for coverage of Trump\u2019s criminal charges. The timing of Trump\u2019s arrest in Georgia\u2014Thursday night\u2014didn\u2019t correspond with Maddow\u2019s regular Monday slot, but the network brought her on anyway; it was an evening ripe for the heavy hitters, after all. The tactic seems to be working. The network has seen a bump in ratings recently, reportedly beating Fox News in prime-time ratings for a full week in early June<\/a> amid coverage of Trump\u2019s second indictment, on charges related to classified documents. The network continued to bear the fruits of Trump\u2019s legal woes earlier this month, which has been MSNBC\u2019s most-watched in more than two years. When Trump was indicted for the fourth time, over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, MSNBC prevailed over Fox News for the top three spots in the cable lineup, Forbes reported<\/a>, citing Nielson data. More viewers turned to MSNBC from 9 p.m. through 3 a.m. than Fox News and CNN combined. Maddow\u2019s 9 p.m. program<\/a>, which happened to feature a previously scheduled interview with Hillary Clinton,<\/strong> drew 3.9 million viewers, and was the number one show across all of television, including broadcast. MSNBC beat Fox News in prime time again the next night. \u201cWhile most of the country is experiencing some level of fatigue over Trump\u2019s legal battles, MSNBC\u2019s viewership has increased with each subsequent indictment,\u201d Axios\u2019s Sara Fischer<\/strong> noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n MSNBC\u2019s approach\u2014and success\u2014is in spite of the broader recalibration toward nonpartisan media that newer outlets like Semafor and The Messenger have said they see a market for. CNN, too, made an apparent attempt to overcorrect for its breathless coverage of the Trump White House. The result, largely ushered under now ex-CEO Chris Licht,<\/strong> has at times been over-sanitized<\/a>, leaving viewers unsure of what the network is offering.<\/p>\n \u201cCNN has definitely lost a ton of audience to MSNBC,\u201d one CNN producer tells me. \u201cOne of Chris Licht\u2019s great legacies was basically telling the audience we built during the Trump era: You\u2019re not welcome, we don\u2019t work for you.<\/em> I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s ever going to be undone, and this new lineup is certainly not a strategy to attract this audience back.\u201d CNN is maintaining its focus on hard news, both in its latest<\/a> streaming effort and newly cemented<\/a> prime-time lineup. \u201cWe now have a decade of data telling us that cable news viewers don\u2019t want news in prime time,\u201d the producer adds. \u201cSo this completely \u2018blinders on, we\u2019re gonna double down on news in prime time and hope for the best\u2019\u2014it just doesn\u2019t make any sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, MSNBC has seemingly only doubled down on being the premier news source for the Trump resistance. For two years, the network\u2019s coverage and numbers were largely driven by Robert Mueller<\/strong>\u2019s special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. \u201cIn addition to breaking pieces of news related to the probe\u2014working in tandem with journalists from NBC News\u2014MSNBC\u2019s anchors, and, in particular, its opinionated progressive evening hosts, turned the Russia story into a gripping daily soap opera that not only helped grow the channel\u2019s audience, but kept it coming back for more,\u201d my colleague Joe Pompeo<\/strong> wrote back<\/a> in 2019. A person close to MSNBC\u2019s strategic thinking credits the network\u2019s ratings to more than just the recent indictments, pointing to both the network\u2019s consistency with viewers and expanded footprint across digital, audio, and streaming. Following Trump\u2019s departure from office, the mandate for hosts has been to keep it nice, as Semafor reported<\/a>\u2014opinion without snark or bombast.<\/p>\n Now MSNBC is approaching what could be the apex in Trump political coverage: his indictments, trials, and another presidential run. The network appears particularly well-positioned to take on this story with its stable of legal analysts, including former top Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann,<\/strong> former acting US solicitor general Neal Katyal,<\/strong> and former US attorney Joyce Vance.<\/strong> It helps that NBC News has also been a central player this political cycle and appears well-sourced with both Trumpworld<\/a> and Ron Desantis<\/strong>\u2019s camp; NBC nabbed the first network interview<\/a> with the Florida governor after he launched his campaign, and has been nabbing scoops<\/a> on him as well as on the Biden administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Timing, too, is on their side; MSNBC is firing on all cylinders just as its competitors face a period of instability. Fox News is still figuring out its future without Tucker Carlson<\/strong> and girding for more defamation suits, while CNN is rudderless, with temporary management attempting to pick up the pieces post-Licht\u2019s tenure, as the company searches for a new CEO.<\/p>\n Over at MSNBC, things are comparatively low drama. I\u2019m told that MSNBC president Rashida Jones<\/strong> has an \u201cif it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it\u201d mentality that has been well-received by top talent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nTwitter content<\/h4>\n