With MSNBC suffering a sharp ratings decline following Donald Trump’s election victory, network president Rashida Jones is considering a possible retirement from office early next year, Oliver Darcy reported Tuesday.

According to Darcy, a spokesperson for Jones denied the report; NBCUniversal representatives had no comment. But citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Darcy wrote in his status newsletter that her possible departure would not occur until sometime after Trump is sworn in for his second term on January 20, 2025.

CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that two of his own sources confirmed that Jones is considering an exit.

Darcy also reported that no decision had been made and that Jones could well remain in the job, in which she largely had a highly successful tenure. Jones led the network to several historic firsts and victories over rival CNN – including on election night, when MSNBC led CNN in ratings for presidential election night coverage for the first time ever.

Still, the last few weeks have been a low point for the liberal-leaning cable news network, which has seen a 50.7% decline in prime-time viewership since election night. As of November 27, MSNBC averaged 661,000 viewers in prime time in the weeks following Trump’s victory. That’s down from the average of 1.34 million before the shock result.

Some of the network’s linchpins have also struggled, with “Morning Joe” sparking criticism after co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed that they met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election had.

To be fair, it is not uncommon for politically oriented news channels to experience declines in overall ratings following events that their target audience finds disappointing. Fox News suffered a major blow after the 2020 election and was even overshadowed at times by much lower-rated conservative rival Newsmax.

And MSNBC experienced similar ratings declines (though not quite as severe) after Trump’s first improbable election victory in 2016, as well as in June of this year after the disastrous Trump-Joe Biden debate.

But Jones’ leadership of MSNBC was, overall, an undeniable success. Since taking office in 2020, she has led several years of strong ratings growth.

It remains to be seen whether MSNBC will bounce back as it did after previous declines. However, if that is the case, the future may still be uncertain as parent company Comcast plans to spin it off, as well as CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, Oxygen and Syfy into a new standalone company that will be completely separate from NBC and will remain in existence comes with the streaming service Peacock and Bravo.

There’s also a slim chance that MSNBC will get an entirely new owner, as CNN’s Brian Stelter reported a week ago that a mysterious billionaire with so-called “liberal credulity” was interested in buying the company.

The post MSNBC boss Rashida Jones considers resignation after Trump win, ratings | The report first appeared on TheWrap.