DOUBLE DOSE OF FAIL FOR LEFT-WING TELEVISION

Al Jazeera America's opening week a ratings disaster

Al Jazeera America launched last week, and we have the ratings from Nielsen Media Research for its first few days.

Not surprisingly given the low-rated channel it replaced (Current TV), and the fact that it lost a few million homes from AT&T before launch (it is currently in just over 40 million homes), AJAM’s launch ratings were pretty low by traditional cable news standards.

The highest rated show on AJAM last week was the Thursday evening edition of "Real Money with Ali Velshi," which drew 54,000 total viewers.

The 2 PM Saturday edition of "News Live" averaged 48,000 viewers, while "Inside Story" Thursday at 12:30 PM averaged 41,000 viewers. "News Live" Thursday from 12-12:30 averaged 40,000. The debut edition of "The Stream" on Tuesday averaged 38,000 viewers, below Nielsen's accuracy threshold, while the debut of "America Tonight" averaged 34,000 viewers.

Meanwhile, over at RHN (Race Hustle Network), still known by its industry name "MSNBC"...

MSNBC Ratings Down Double Digits From a Year Ago

MSNBC's ratings tumble continued with a poor August showing, with some programs seeing nearly a 50-percent drop in viewership from a year ago, TV Newser reports.

Among the lowlights were the worst showings yet by its leading program The Rachel Maddow Show, with 43 percent and 47 percent drops in total viewers and the 25-54 demographic, respectively, and 40- and 42-percent drops in the same areas for The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell.

8 p.m.'s All In With Chris Hayes, whose host acknowledged in a New Yorker article that his ratings are "bad right now," was down 48 percent and 42 percent in total and the 25-54 demo as well.

"Morning Joe" was down -9% in total viewers and -17% in the A25-54 demographic compared to the same month last year, which actually was a better result than many of the programs that came later in the day.

In primetime, "The Rachel Maddow Show" posted all-time low ratings in total and demo viewers, down -43% and -47%, respectively. "The Last Word" posted a low in total viewers, losing -40% of its total viewer audience and -42% of its demo audience. at 8 PM, "All In" was down -48% and -42% in total and demo viewers, respectively, placing behind CNN for the hour.

In dayside, MSNBC was down double digits in pretty much every hour in total and demo viewers, including 6 PM's "PoliticsNation," which was down -31% and -37% in total and demo viewers, and 3 PM's "The Cycle," which was down -15% and -18% in total and demo viewers.