With MSNBC’s longtime ratings powerhouse Rachel Maddow having stepped away from her nightly prime time show, a new landscape is emerging at the network. The ratings vacuum has led to a struggle between several top hosts at the network vying for the number one spot. Last month, the top-rated of them all was Ari Melber, the host of 6 p.m. show The Beat and the network’s chief legal analyst.
The Beat was the most watched show on MSNBC in the month of January in both total viewers and the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic. The program drew enough viewers overall to beat out every hour on CNN as well. That’s no small feat for a show airing outside of prime time.
The success of The Beat has been a long time coming: Melber has held down the 6 p.m. hour on MSNBC since 2017, longer than any host before him — and there have been many.
It remains to be seen whether The Beat will cement its position on top of the ratings pile at MSNBC. Prime time host Lawrence O’Donnell has typically landed first since the reduction of The Rachel Maddow Show last summer.
Regardless, Melber has also found remarkable success outside of cable news, namely on YouTube, where The Beat just crossed a whopping 1 billion streams — making it one of the most-watched news shows online, and proving its appeal to a younger audience coveted by cable news executives.
I spoke with Melber about the success of his show, the uncertain future of cable news, and the top legal stories of the moment on this week’s episode of The Interview.
I first asked Melber what he sees as the key to success in cable news.
“The short answer is: be honest, be consistent, and be different in interesting, authentic ways,” he said.
The Beat has embraced a rather unique model. Melber, a legal expert and politics junkie, also manages to weave his obsessive love of hip hop into the show. He peppers his commentary — on the air and off — with rap lyrics, and interviews the biggest stars in the music industry in between segments on heavier news topics.
“I’ll be honest with you, I am especially happy that we right now are the most watched show across MSNBC or CNN while doing the show our way,” he said. “I would challenge people to find a show that goes from [Steve] Bannon to Snoop to Sheryl Crow to Matt Gaetz, to all the lawyers and experts on the people we have on.”
Melber also argued his show seeks to avoid the partisan theatrics that have become commonplace on cable news.
“I think that there are times when some people mistake passion and opinion, and I think they’re different,” he said. “You can be passionately, politically opinionated. You can also have a deep passion that comes through and is not rooted in any partisan lens. So I think our show is very passionate about a whole range of important subjects that we cover. And I hope that comes through. But I think we definitely do not try to traffic in a partisan or team approach to stuff.”
Ultimately, he argued he prefers to let the audience form their own opinions based on the evidence.
“My vibe has always been showing evidence is more powerful than conclusions,” he said. “Starting the news night with what I personally might think about something is one of the least interesting things to start with.”
When asked about The Beat’s success online, Melber noted the value of expanding a cable news brand to YouTube and reaching the younger audience available on that platform. The Beat, he noted, frequently goes viral on YouTube, with individual segments often reaching millions of viewers.
Those viral segments can come from anywhere, be it Neil deGrasse Tyson debunking claims from Donald Trump or a contentious debate with Matt Gaetz, a newsworthy interview Melber said proves the value of sitting down with guests with whom the audience might not agree.
Agree or not, they are tuning in.
Listen above via Mediaite’s The Interview.
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