Viewers have been fleeing MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in droves since co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed on Monday that they trekked down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Donald Trump, according to the latest Nielsen figures.
Scarborough and Brzezinski, who have been highly critical of Trump, stunned their audience on Monday morning when they announced that they traveled to his Palm Beach estate to “restart communications” with the president-elect.
Nielsen data shows that less than an hour after they explained their rationale for the trip, viewers were changing the channel and clicking away from MSNBC, according to Mediaite.
Between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Eastern time, viewership of “Morning Joe” fell 17% — from 839,000 to 694,000.
In the 25-54 age demographic that is most coveted by advertisers, viewership dropped 38% — from 113,000 people to 70,000.
In the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. hour, the audience picked up somewhat as viewership hit 775,000 people.
But ratings dropped in the 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. hour as the audience shrank to 770,000 viewers.
The Post has sought comment from MSNBC.
Scarborough and Brzezinski came under fire from both liberals and conservatives this week who accused them of hypocrites for routinely denouncing Trump only to then seek his company after he was elected.
“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart mocked the duo for rushing to meet with Trump after the pair parroted Democrats who called him a danger to democracy and compared him to Hitler.
Nikki Haley, the former Republican presidential candidate, blasted the “Morning Joe” co-hosts on Monday — accusing them of currying favor with Trump to boost their ratings.
Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin, co-hosts of ABC’s “The View,” were critical of the meeting, saying that Scarborough and Brzezinski were not true journalists.
Hostin said it wasn’t necessary in her view to go and “kiss his ring” to be able to properly cover Trump.
Unnamed MSNBC staffers were also furious with the two for displaying “cowardice” for holding the meeting which was “disgusting but frankly unsurprising.”
But the “Morning Joe” husband-and-wife team dismissed the criticism, with Scarborough insisting that they were “here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights that are going to better equip all of us in understanding these deeply unsettling times.”
MSNBC has seen its ratings nosedive in the days after Trump’s election victory two weeks ago.
Prime time viewership of the Comcast-owned cable network fell 54% while its daily average viewership declined to 736,000 — down from 1.1 million last month.
The declines are a sharp turnaround from Election Day, when MSNBC’s election night coverage, anchored by Rachel Maddow, averaged 6 million viewers, besting CNN’s 5.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.
The kerfuffle over “Morning Joe” comes as big changes are afoot at MSNBC parent company Comcast, which announced on Wednesday that it plans to spin off some NBCUniversal cable TV network in a reorganization spurred on by the rise of digital streaming.
Comcast shares rose about 1.7% in premarket trading, after the company said it would separate its entertainment and news channels including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel.
Comcast will retain some NBC entertainment, sports and news properties, along with the Peacock streaming service, its theme parks as well as film and television studios.
With Post Wires