FFor years, the cable news channel MSNBC has been a reliable liberal voice in the US media landscape, but with Donald Trump’s return to the White House and its own business upheavals, the channel is now in crisis.

The world’s richest man and close Trump ally, Elon Musk, has even, perhaps jokingly, repeatedly publicly touted the idea of ​​buying MSNBC after the network’s parent company, Comcast, recently announced it would spin off the cable news channel .

Audience fatigue over Trump’s re-election and the potential missteps of high-profile MSNBC anchors in response to that event could make it difficult for the new venture to boost the channel’s ratings, which had already been declining before the election, and continue to skew left To provide perspective on global events, US media analysts told the Guardian.

The negative reports about the channel last month are just the latest examples of an established U.S. media company struggling to gain traction as people continue to forego cable TV packages in favor of streaming services.

But particularly sharp recent ratings declines and reports of a possible purchase of the channel by Musk could make it particularly difficult for high-profile programs like Morning Joe and The Rachel Maddow Show to continue to offer a progressive alternative to Fox News, analysts say.

During Trump’s first term, “MSNBC really stood as a center for resistance and criticism of Trump,” said Kathryn Cramer Brownell, an associate professor of history at Purdue University and author of 24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News.

“It remains to be seen whether or not they will be able to build an identity and political following against Trump,” she added.

According to the Pew Research Center, an average of 4.2 million people tuned in to CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in 2016. In 2022, that number fell to 3.8 million.

MSNBC briefly saw a significant increase in ratings during the turmoil of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests and the 2020 presidential election, but later declined again.

In October, Comcast’s president said the company was considering spinning off its cable networks, including CNBC and MSNBC, into a separate company. The company then made an official announcement last week.

According to Nielsen data, MSNBC averaged about 521,000 viewers per day since Election Day, down 38% from the 2024 average before Nov. 5.

Then Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort to talk to him about “abortion, mass deportation” and his threats of “retaliation against political opponents and media companies,” Scarborough said meet broadcast about it.

“We disagreed on a lot of issues and we told him so,” Scarborough said, but they agreed to continue the dialogue.

Afterwards, the hosts faced significant backlash and a slump in ratings.

“They made a fundamental business mistake,” said Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor and author. “There’s a big new ecosystem of independent media now, and people have left the Washington Post and they’re leaving MSNBC, and that worries me.”

Brownell said she wasn’t surprised by the morning show hosts’ meeting with the president-elect.

“Media companies often rely on maintaining relationships with political leaders and presidential administrations. This keeps them relevant,” she said. “But you can see the backlash on a show that leans left and relies on Trump’s critics as viewers.”

The future of such shows is also uncertain, as Comcast has decided to spin off the cable news channels into a separate company along with channels such as E!, USA and the Golf Channel.

“When you look at our assets, our talented management team and our balance sheet strength, we have the ability to position these companies for future growth,” said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast.

After the announcement, Donald Trump Jr. joked on X that Musk should buy MSNBC, to which Musk replied, “How much does it cost?”

A spin-off does not mean that the company is for sale. Musk, the owner of

CNN reported that billionaires with “liberal beliefs” have also expressed interest in buying MSNBC.

“I fear that (Musk) might try to buy MSNBC, and I fear that Comcast might be unethical enough to sell it to him,” Jarvis said.

Even if one of the liberal billionaires buys the channel, its ability to be profitable in the long term while delivering left-leaning news and commentary is uncertain as people no longer subscribe to cable.

But after the 2016 election and the winner’s constant attacks on the media, many news organizations, including MSNBC, got a so-called “Trump bump.”

Could this happen again after he takes office?

“If there is a Trump boom, I suspect it will be delayed,” said Marty Kaplan, who is the Norman Lear Chair in Entertainment, Media and Society at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “It may take doomscrollers a few seconds to overcome the nausea. On the other hand, a media fast could be a popular New Year’s resolution.”

While the cable cut and recent events are indeed leading to MSNBC’s demise, Brownell said she sees podcasts as great journalism and thinks “the diversified media landscape opens up a lot of opportunities.”

“The challenge is the economic question. “How do you fund and support some of these other alternative journalism projects?” she said. “You can have non-profit organizations step in, foundations. It’s an opportunity to be creative… (and to rethink economic approaches to funding really good, hard-hitting, necessary journalism).”