NEW YORK (AP) — As a Democrat who immersed himself in political news during the presidential campaign, Ziad Aunallah has much in common with many Americans after the election. He’s feeling down.
“People are mentally exhausted,” said Aunala, 45, of San Diego. “We all know what’s going to happen, but we’re just resting for a little while.”
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Television ratings, and now a new poll, clearly demonstrate this phenomenon. About two-thirds of U.S. adults say they’ve recently felt the need to limit their political and government media consumption because of overload, according to a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Polls show that fewer Americans limit their intake of news about foreign conflicts, the economy and climate change. Politics is prominent.
Sam Gude, 47, an electrician from Lincoln, Nebraska, said election news on CNN and MSNBC was taking up too much of his time before the election. “The last thing I want to see right now is an interregnum,” said Goode, a Democrat who is not a fan of President-elect Donald Trump.
Opinion polls show that Democrats are more distanced from the news than Republicans.
The poll, conducted in early December, found that about 7 in 10 Democrats say they distance themselves from political news. The percentage is not that high for Republicans, who have reason to celebrate Trump’s victory. Still, about 6 in 10 Republicans say they have felt the need to take a vacation, as do independents.
The difference is even more stark for television networks, which have become obsessed with political news.
From election night to Dec. 13, MSNBC averaged 620,000 prime-time viewers, a 54% decrease from before this year’s election, according to Nielsen. Comparing the same period, CNN averaged 405,000 viewers, down 45%.
Fox News Channel, a news network popular with Trump fans, averaged 2.68 million viewers after the election, a 13% increase, Nielsen said. After the election, 72% of people who watch one of these three cable networks in the evening watched Fox News, compared to 53% before Election Day.
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The post-election slump in fans of losing candidates is not a new trend for networks that have become highly conscious of partisan audiences. MSNBC had similar problems after President Trump was elected in 2016. It was the same at FOX in 2020, but anger complicated things. At the time, many viewers were upset that the network called Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to Arizona on a crucial election night. I looked for alternatives.
After some “Morning Joe” viewers were upset that hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski visited Trump shortly after his victory last month, MSNBC announced its own I had anger issues. But the show’s ratings have fallen 35% since Election Day, which is less than the station’s prime-time ratings.
CNN points out that while TV ratings are down, streaming and digital ratings are stable.
Will political interest recover if President Trump takes office?
MSNBC can take some solace in looking back on its history. In previous years, network ratings have rebounded once the recession following an election loss has recovered. When a new government takes office, those who oppose it often look for a place to gather.
“I’ll tune in again when the clown show starts,” Aunala said. “You have no choice. It’s happening whether you want to hear it or not. If you care about your country, you have no choice but to pay attention.”
However, the ride may not be as smooth. MSNBC’s decline is even steeper than in 2016. And there are some questions about whether President Trump’s opponents will want to be as involved as they were during his first term. He also believes that MSNBC has resisted the trend of eating away at viewers, even though viewership from cable TV is accelerating.
This poll shows that Americans generally don’t want public figures to talk much about politics. After an election season in which endorsements from celebrities like Taylor Swift made headlines, a survey finds Americans are more likely to disapprove of what celebrities, big businesses, and professional athletes say about politics than to approve of them. was found to be high.
Still, Gude is among those who are finding other ways to get the news they want to watch, including YouTube.
MSNBC is also in the midst of a corporate upheaval that raises questions about potential changes. Parent company Comcast announced last month that the cable network would also be spun off into a new company, giving MSNBC new corporate leadership and cutting ties with NBC News.
Advice for networks hoping to keep viewers coming back
Some Americans who had recently turned away from political news received advice on how to re-engage.
For example, Goode said MSNBC will always have a hardcore audience that hates President Trump. But if the network wants to grow its audience, “we have to talk about the issues and we have to stop talking about Trump.”
Kathleen Kendrick, a 36-year-old sales representative from Grand Junction, Colorado, is registered as an independent voter, but she hears many people shouting out their political opinions on the job. spoke. She wants more depth when she watches the news. She says much of what she sees is one-sided and shallow.
“You get the story, but it’s only part of the story,” Kendrick said. “I hope you understand both sides and do further research.”
Aunala similarly seeks more depth and variety. He’s “no longer interested in seeing an angry man on a street corner yelling at me,” he says.
“What I don’t see is it’s kind of their own fault,” he said. “I felt like they were talking about the election the whole time. Why would people want to keep watching even after the main event was over?”
The poll of 1,251 adults was conducted from December 5 to 9, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s Probability.
