While MSNBC viewership dropped 31% in the days after Election Day, Fox News ratings grew a whopping 61% in the same period, according to Nielsen data reported by Fox News.

Social media has been alight with anecdotal explanations for why the liberal-leaning news networks are seeing such a stark drop in viewership: Many blame the media for “normalizing” Trump’s candidacy and refuse to reward them with the ratings they suspect the network execs desired in doing so.

Trump’s landslide victory has viewers tuning out: MSNBC & CNN see drastic viewership drop post-election. Thursday’s numbers show MSNBC at 596k total (71k 25-54 demo), CNN at 419k total (91k 25-54 demo). Networks face their lowest primetime ratings, with MSNBC down 23% and CNN… pic.twitter.com/ERbE0kOczG

MSNBC saw its audience crater on Thursday, just days after the left-of-center network beat CNN in election night ratings for the first time ever. Thursday’s total average daily viewers on Fox News came in at 2.

The Rachel Maddow Show,” the liberal network’s highest-rated program, drew 1.3 million viewers on Monday, about a million shy of her October average, according to Nielsen. In a crucial ratings metric — viewers under the age of 54 — it was the least-watched edition of the show since April 2022.

Fox News’ livestream of President-elect Trump speaking was the most-streamed livestream on Election Day with 1 million peak concurrent viewers.

Left-winged news organisation MSNBC has seen its viewership ratings plunge following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.