‘We Want To Break New Ground’

In a time of relentless–maybe exhausting is a better word–change, MSNBC’s Morning Joe has remained remarkably consistent–in fact, co-hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist have quietly taken the title of longest-running morning show team on television as they close in on two decades together.

While it’s very rare in television for one set of hosts to endure as long as these three have, a lot has changed. The show that began in a studio in Secaucus, New Jersey, soon decamped for New York. The sets have changed. So has Scarborough’s look, evolving with the times from v-neck-sweater-over-white-tee to jacket-no-tie to jacket-and-rep-tie-with-sneakers and occasionally just a branded Morning Joe sweatshirt.

But the mission of the show today is pretty much the same as it was in the beginning: setting the stage for the day in politics and news by bringing together legislators, academics, journalists, authors, and others to try and make sense of what’s happening over a cup (or more) of coffee. “Morning Joe continues to be at the center of political conversation with influential audiences not just in Washington, D.C. and New York, but across the country,” Scarborough said.

Dominant in DC–and on YouTube

And while they have yet to knock the goliath of Fox News Channel’s Fox ‘n’ Friends from its perch as the most-watched morning show in cable news, Morning Joe has been the top-rated morning show in the Washington, DC market, home of course to influential viewers like Donald Trump, who has consistently bashed MSNBC while also conceding that he’s a regular viewer.

Nationally, Morning Joe has averaged 701,000 viewers in the second quarter, more than doubling that of CNN, and the second quarter also marks 41 consecutive quarterly wins over CNN. Among viewers 25-54, the key demographic valued by advertisers, Morning Joe has also beaten CNN, drawing an average audience of 62,000 viewers in the second quarter of 2025. In all, the MSNBC show has beaten its CNN competition across the board this year, in all demos and times.

Despite a dip in overall viewership following the presidential election in November–common after viewership traditionally climbs during the months leading up to Election Day–Morning Joe’s audience has rebounded, climbing 11 percent among total viewers and 9 percent in the key demo.

The show has also seen its viewership on YouTube rise dramatically, with 56.2 million views in the second quarter, up 38% from 1Q 2025. And while Morning Joe is considered a politically-driven program, some of the show’s most-watched videos on YouTube deal with economics, including an April segment on Trump’s tariff war that drew more than 1.2 million views, and one that focused on a warning from the CEOs of Walmart and Target about rising prices and empty shelves that’s been watched 1.5 million times:

‘We want to break new ground’

The focus on non-linear viewership is a reality for all of cable and broadcast news, as a generational shift in media consumption means younger viewers are far less likely than their parents and grandparents to sit down in front of a TV and watch live news.

Morning Joe has plans to meet those viewers where they are with consumable chunks of the live show on social media, and new content produced specifically for non-linear viewers. “Looking ahead, the entire team is excited to build on what has made the program successful for nearly two decades. We want to break new ground in the audio space, revamp and beef up our newsletter, and experiment with town hall meetings with the loyal Morning Joe family,” Scarborough said of the show’s plans.

The show’s daily audio showcast, a podcast-style version of the daily broadcast, is MSNBC’s most-listened-to, with 1.4 million downloads so far in June.

400 voices a month

With four hours each morning, Morning Joe has time to cast a wide net, and it does: averaging 400 different voices each month. Often, those are newsmakers, like Sen. Amy Klobuchar who talked on a Monday morning about the assassination of her friend and fellow lawmaker, Minnesota Democrat Melissa Hortman, who had been shot and killed two days earlier.

Over the last few weeks, other guests have included Trump border czar Tom Homan, talking about ICE raids and protests in Los Angeles, and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who discussed Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.

But the show’s bookers are also quite effective at landing big names in entertainment and theater, with Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm and Seth Rogan appearing on Morning Joe in recent weeks.

More change to come

In the next few months, the Morning Joe will adjust to one big change: Comcast’s spinoff of the NBCUniversal cable and digital assets into a new company, Versant Media. Versant will be a publicly-traded news and entertainment company, with a portfolio that includes MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel, as well as digital properties including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine.

To prepare for the spinoff, MSNBC has been building its own independent news organization separate from NBC News. The spinoff is expected to be complete by the end of 2025.