LOW RATINGS MARK FIRST-WEEK DEBUT OF FARROW, REID ON MSNBC

The debut of a new talk show is often accompanied by ratings that are inflated by the curious. If that was the case with the first week of MSNBC’s Ronan Farrow Daily and Joy Reid’s The Reid Report, the Comcast-owned network has something to worry about. Farrow’s show averaged just 243,000 total viewers for the week, down 40 percent from Andrea Mitchell’s audience in the same timeslot last year. The Reid Report, which followed Farrow’s program, averaged 286,000 viewers for the week, down 8 percent from Tamron Hall’s program in that slot last year. Among the 25-54 demo (advertiser’s target group for talk show, Farrow average 55,000; Reid 63,200. Both shows would appear to have no where to go but up from such a lackluster start, but the second week of new talk shows generally see a ratings decline.