What programming changes did CNN and MS NOW implement in 2025 to respond to ratings declines, and have they shown early impact?
Executive summary
MS NOW (the channel formerly known as MSNBC) undertook a visible primetime shakeup in 2025 — canceling shows, reassigning hosts, expanding Rachel Maddow’s presence temporarily and planning a broader weekend/primetime relaunch — while CNN quietly shuffled talent and experimented with programming but, in the reporting provided, lacks a comparably large, single rebrand moment; early signals show mixed impact for MS NOW (short-term rebounds around major events) and continued audience pressure for CNN (with isolated spikes on big news nights) [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. MS NOW’s 2025 programming blitz: cancellations, a rebrand and a Maddow stopgap
MS NOW implemented overt lineup surgery in 2025: the network canceled The ReidOut at 7 p.m. and axed Alex Wagner’s weeknight 9 p.m. show while moving a revamped The Weekend into weekday primetime later in the year and preparing new weekend hosts and a primetime edition of that franchise — moves the industry framed as part of a full programming reset tied to an eventual rebrand to “MS NOW” (MSNBC until November 2025) [1] [3]. To blunt the immediate audience erosion after the 2024 campaign, the network temporarily restored Rachel Maddow to five nights a week for the first 100 days of the new administration — a deliberate short-term ratings gambit that was credited with lifting that timeslot’s numbers in January 2025 [2] [5].
2. CNN’s quieter shuffles, talent reshuffles and programming experiments
Reporting describes CNN as undertaking talent reshuffles and programming experiments in 2025 — repeated host and schedule changes and an increased focus on entertainment-adjacent formats rather than a headline-making rebrand — but the sources offer fewer granular, consistent listings of canceled or new shows at CNN compared with MS NOW and emphasize more of a pattern of continued audience decline despite adjustments [6] [3] [4]. Specific new series or large-scale schedule announcements at CNN in the provided reporting are not cataloged in detail, which limits firm conclusions about the exact program moves beyond general “reshuffles” and attempts to broaden content mix [6].
3. Early impact: short-term rebounds, election-night spikes, but persistent year-long declines
MS NOW’s short-term tactics produced measurable but fleeting gains: returning Maddow to nightly anchoring coincided with notable week-to-week primetime lifts in late January 2025 — Nielsen-based coverage showed primetime viewers rising to about 1.3 million on key nights versus sub-800,000 averages immediately beforehand [2]. Yet over the full year MS NOW still posted double-digit year‑over‑year declines in total viewers and the 25–54 demo, with industry summaries crediting some programming moves but underscoring a net audience loss [4] [3]. CNN likewise saw continued softness across 2025 — reporting shows double-digit demo declines in some windows and only episodic successes, such as a big bump on election night when cable viewership surged across networks and both CNN and MS NOW tripled recent averages for that event [4] [7]. Across multiple industry tallies, Fox News remained the ratings leader in 2025, underscoring that the incremental programming shifts at CNN and MS NOW have not yet reversed broader audience trends [8] [3].
4. What the numbers really say — causes, counterarguments and reporting limits
Analysts point to a mix of structural forces — post‑election audience attrition typical of non‑cycle years, migration to streaming and fast news bites, and the pulling power of Fox’s stable primetime slate — as reasons the networks’ fixes have had limited upside; critics argue MS NOW’s reliance on Maddow’s star power is a stopgap that doesn’t address younger-demo declines, while defenders say the channel’s rebrand and weekend strategy are longer‑term plays whose payoff won’t show in a single ratings cycle [4] [1] [6]. The record in the supplied reporting is incomplete on some fronts: concrete, line‑by‑line descriptions of CNN’s 2025 schedule changes are sparse in these sources, and longer-term audience trends through late 2025 include mixed quarterly reports that complicate claims of clear success [6] [9].
5. Bottom line
The programming response at MS NOW in 2025 was bold and visible — cancellations, a rebrand-in-motion, and a high-profile temporary resurrection of Maddow — and produced demonstrable short-term lifts around major events, but year‑long metrics still show significant declines; CNN implemented less publicized talent and program shifts with episodic ratings spikes but no sustained recovery evident in the sources reviewed, leaving both networks still fighting headwinds from structural changes in viewership and a dominant competitor [2] [4] [3].