Fox and Friends beats Joe Scarborough

“Morning Joe,” A. J. Katz reports for AdWeek, “doubled CNN, and finished ahead of CNN in A25-54 (182,000 vs. CNN’s 133,000). January marked the 59th straight month Morning Joe beat CNN in total viewers and the 27th straight month “Morning Joe beat CNN in A25-54. However, MJ remains in second place among the cable morning newsers, behind Fox & Friends.”

It’s hard to believe that Joe Scarborough leads anyone, but AT&T’s telephone administrators haven’t figured out how cable television works. True, there are some strong journalists at CNN including John King, Richard Engel and Dana Bash, but they are overwhelmed by a lineup that is designed by Jeff Zucker, a Liberal do-gooder with no understanding of the America outside LA. Chicago and Manhattan.

Instead of replacing Zucker, WarnerMedia’s executives gave him “Sports” to run in addition to “News.” Maybe that’s what corporate managers do, but in the fast moving world of cable television it’s better to throw off “old hat” management styles and dress and look for what’s “new.”

Which brings me to Morning Joe that after more than ten years is showing its age.  Joe Scarborough does his best to look new with a new wife, new Party affiliation and some new suits, but Joe looks tired and bored with a talk show that starts at 6 am every day. That’s 3 am on the West Coast, but East Coast markets drive TV programming, And there’s that idiotic programming at the same time at Fox. Being beaten by them probably makes Joe wish he had pitched his idea for a Morning show to Roger Ailes.