'Morning Joe' Viewership Drops 17% After Joe and Mika Meet With Trump

By Loree Seitz

“Morning Joe” took a hit to its viewership Monday after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed that they had met with President-elect Donald Trump. The revelation was met with decidedly mixed reactions online, and in real time, over 100,000 viewers turned the channel before 8 a.m.

After starting off with 839,000 total viewers in the 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. hour on Monday morning, total viewership for “Morning Joe” dropped to 694,000 in the 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. time slot following the hosts’ explanation of their meeting, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures. The 17% drop off in viewership is pretty unusual from the 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., with viewership typically growing as bigger audiences tune in for their morning news.