interesting news
uh... here it is
I am
out at MSNBC
now whose decision was this
well it was both of our decisions I will explain
okay in turn not
at the same time
so when I first came in to MSNBC they told me hey listen
you know basically the main thing you gotta do is get good ratings I was like okay
that's pretty clear
uh... and by the time that I had left I had very good ratings as I'm about to
show you in a little bit
but uh... I was called in a couple weeks ago
and told that I will not get the six o'clock shot
I was like whoa that's interesting
I said okay well why right
well they said uh... you had really ratings you did everything that we asked
you to do but we went in a different direction but
we want you to stay
which is nice of them
and they said we want you to have a different role
and uh... they offered
honestly
a lot of money for that different role
I said no okay
now I'm going to tell you why I said no and why
I think
they didn't want to go for six o'clock
so here's the interesting story
after I was told that hey listen mainly it's the ratings right one of the
producers on one of the show's pulled me aside as a friend
give me a little talking to which was interesting
he said look Cenk there are two audiences right
he said there's the audience that you're trying to appeal to that's the viewers
and there's audience that is management
okay and management is kinda like the club
and they want to make sure that you're cool and that
you know basically you can play ball to be in the club
and I thought hey listen the guy's try to look out for me I appreciate it is that
really true
who knows right
it's something to note no question about it right
but we'll see how it develops okay
then I started getting notes every once in awhile these notes were no big deal
perfectly fine you know they would tell you
uh... don't use your arms so much look at that I'm just using the arms
right why who knows
uh... act more like a senator
why why would I act like a senator senator's are incredibly boring
why would I do that but okay i'm trying you know hey
it's a different format right on the online I did get to do it's my show I do
whatever I like
we have a great audience etc. but it's a different format they're
in that respect my bosses so I listen to them right
and then we get a number of enormous news events and for those of you who don't
know
those big news events wind up helping CNN so when he Egypt's revolution
happens everybody turns to CNN
Libya Japan
uh... Osama bin Laden getting shot and killed
all those are what they call
CNN stories right and so
now the show is not named
uh... we have all these four storms that we gotta get beyond
uh... and then i'm doing this and this okay and I got the tie
but you know so we have some up-and-down numbers in february and
march for example right
uh... and then
I started doing it more my style
and then the numbers went up
you're about to see that in a sec
and I just love this comment on YouTube I'm sorry I forgot who said it
but they said looking at Cenk on The Young Turks is like watching a
tiger in the wild right
seeing him on TV is like watching that same tiger in a zoo
and I love you for saying that
it's a little true especially when I was actually trying to listen to their
advice
now I stop listening to their advice
in April why well
this is the TV moment or movie moment
I got pulled in
and
they told me
hey listen
uh... we were just or is actually one specific person the head of MSNBC
he said I was just in Washington
and people in Washington tell me
that they're concerned about your tone
I was like whoa what
you know
despite all the things that I've said about the mainstream media
I still viewed that as kind of like theoretical like a real person are they
really going to say that I was like
and I'm naively thinking what does he mean did he talk to his friend Bob in
Washington
why would you say people in Washington
if he meant oh yeah I was talking to my buddy down at the shop about you it
just happened to be that he was a person in Washington you wouldn't frame it
that way right
but I'm still thinking that
and then he gives me the second part of the speech he says to me
hey listen Cenk
outsiders are cool
and they wear I think he might have said something like they wear leather jackets
they ride bikes I think I'm an outsider
I don't ride bike
but I have a terrible leather jacket anyway
he said I'd love to be an outsider outsiders are cool but we're not
we're insiders
we are the establishment
and I just kind of sat back
I was like wow
this is it
this is the speech
so
he said look you got a tone it down
and then had me talk to one of their top contributors who explained hey
listen
just take it easy you know you're a little tough on the guests
and you know tone issues and you know
let's have more republicans on which was an interesting thing
by the way I have no problems with that because
I'm not gonna have a Republican on and play patty cakes with them whenever I had
republicans on I challenged them and I enjoyed that so no problems with that
so I get that speech and when I walked out of the office I didn't say anything to him
when I heard it and when I walked out of office I thought
oh that's it now it's on okay I will not be doing that
I will be doing the opposite
so then I started uh...
letting that tiger run a little right
and we did it more my style whether it was stylistically some of the segments were
more unscripted at the end they were totally unscripted
right which I enjoy like we're doing right now
uh...
because you get to tell a story that way I'm going to come back to that point in
a second but substantively
you know it was always challenging the government and challenging those that
are in power and obviously that was the issue right
and I continued do that uh... going forward as well and so what happened
well my ratings improved dramatically
april was good
may was great let me show you the may numbers
uh... these are all from internal MSNBC emails okay uh... adults twenty five fifty
four
I got a hundred and sixty four thousand
that was a nineteen share
delivered the strongest adults twenty five
and total viewer audience since the launch of the show okay now
you gotta understand the demo talk here on television right
adults twenty five to fifty four they call the money demo
that's uh... where they want uh... that's what the advertisers judge you on
that's where you gotta do well okay so april check
may even better great
well how about the whole quarter because that gives you a better sense of it so if you say
oh well he did well this week or he didn't do well that week yeah that's not
really much of an indication but a whole quarter three months april may and june
well fantastic
look at those numbers adults twenty five fifty four five hundred fifty-four
thousand overall eighteen share
now that includes
april
and we picked up in may and june
uh... but even then overall ranked number two in total viewers the overall
in the quarter
beat CNN
and MSNBC Live at six that's me up from last year and last quarter
so why is it important that it's up from last year
well they were incredibly satisfied with Ed Schultz's they should have been he did a
great job and he brought up the numbers
I did better than last year's numbers okay
so if you beat the guy that they said hey was the guy who got the position
before you
they should be very happy with that
and it's not to say that I beat Ed it's just we improved on the numbers so that's
fantastic right
and if you beat the hell out of CNN that's fantastic
in june it's even better okay now look at this
this was the week right before they told me the decision okay
um
hundred seventy four thousand
uh... in the demo nineteen share
beat CNN
by
fifty one thousand in the demo
now that's when they're saying yeah
we're not that interested
how could you not be interested if you care if you only care about the numbers
that doesn't make any sense right
if you think that's bad
you see what we had up on that earlier graphic
I beat
Fox in adults
eighteen to thirty four
those are that's a younger audience obviously I don't know how many MSNBC
shows beat Fox in fact when I went on MSNBC had an article with Alternet and I
said that
I would beat Fox in the ratings and make them fear me
and I remember some conservative websites [laughter] you can't beat Fox in the ratings
Fox is way ahead that's why
you know you see the number two numbers that means you beat CNN you beat
everybody else right
well I caught them in a demo
right after I caught them in a demo and was number one there they called me in
and said no thanks
okay now
obviously I was puzzled by that right
so and but I do know that the speech I got at three months ago so I asked I said
hey listen did
I not do everything you asked me to and he said yes you did
I said did I not get good ratings he said yes you did
I said so what's up
we think that there's a better role for you
and it's not in six o'clock
okay I'm like great
when do I start at seven o'clock
[laughter]
and that is not how it went down so they offered me a as smaller role contributor
et cetera et cetera
and again you know
maybe to their credit they offered me a lot of money
so why did I turn it down
look when they gave me the speech
I thought
look they're trying to you know they're trying to bring me in and
but they're not I said maybe there are maybe they're going to act on it but I don't care
I'm not gonna do that there's no way
that I'm going to control the content of the show and tone it down so that
people in Washington are happy not going to do it I promised you guys you
remember before I went into MSNBC
I promised The Young Turks audience that I would never do that right so you know
but at the time you think are they really gonna make a decision based
on that I don't know we'll find out
well when your ratings are good
and they say you did everything you were supposed to do
and then you don't get the show
it leads me to believe that that might have been the reason
so I didn't wanna work at a place that
you know wouldn't let me do my kind of show that wasn't interested in my kind
of show
didn't want to challenge power
in fact
isn't that what I've been railing against the whole
time on The Young Turks
and look part of the reason that I made the decision
and it look come on keep it real there's a lot of factors right you get
all that money thrown at you and let me tell you something else that's really important
it's the perks it's funny because I said the same thing
before I went in
god they give you car rides to the airport they give you fancy hotels
you know that when you fly business class not do you get warm chocolate chip
cookies
but your bags come out first you're like aha suckers
everybody wait I'm going first
it's great to have your bags come out first you to get used to it right
and that's how they suck you in
as a general principle I don't mean MSNBC in particular
so I thought and I thought and I said look
the deciding factor for me was
I had to tell you this story
because
I'm holding onto this story that
you know I've been talking about the whole time on The Young Turks
about how
the problem with the mainstream media is they're
desperate to get access
they don't challenge the government they don't challenge power
and now you see that that is in fact true
when they give you the speech you're not sure that it's true when they act upon the speech
then you're sure it's true
then I gotta tell you that if I take the money and I get a reduced role
and I just
you know do whatever I do with it maybe I even rise up in the ranks again
what's the point man the point of the show was truth-telling
that's what we're supposed to do and we're supposed to challenge the government
that's the role of the media
so
I stuck to that
and uh... and I hope I made the right decision
and that is exactly what we'll do on The Young Turks going forward
and you could still tell 'em
tell your friends
tell your neighbors
tell Randy Gonzalez I'm coming
more than ever I'm coming
all right Steve Oh looks like he's got a question
for me yes can you speak about the money turned down I mean it's
not like you got a reduction in salary I mean they offered you
more than you were currently making
for smaller role
yeah you know that's an interesting point it's like kind of hush money to shut you up
and keep it keep you
off the primetime air waves
yeah I don't know about that part right and I don't want to speculate on that but you know
and we didn't talk about this before but yeah you know I just always it's a lot of money I don't want
to say how much but
Steve makes an interesting point
it was
double the amount of money I was receiving for a much smaller role
you know there could be different reasons for that
or it could be like hey come on play ball play ball okay
we gotta keep you you got a good progressive brand we need that progressive brand et cetera
now look I wanna make something else clear and this is really important
uh... this is not impugn any of the other hosts why why
because I'm not just saying that because I like them et cetera et cetera
because
in real life the power structures are different for every uh... person right
there is no
and here's someone else I want to clarify right
MSNBC is not Fox news channel okay people are going to say they're all the same there's
going to be a false equivalency no
there was never a memo as there was at Fox news that we saw from Bill Salmon and Moody
et cetera saying
all right here's what we want you to say here's what we don't want you to say
here are the words that we want you to use remember at Fox news channel they tell their news
anchors
don't say healthcare program say obama care
don't call it the public option that polls well
call it the government option
okay they take polling from republican organizations
and then make their news anchor say it that did not happen at MSNBC
now what happened was not great either now the second distinction
is between management and the hosts for example I
you know Rachel Maddow
has done such a great job of achieving strong independence there and
you do that if you're a smart person like Rachel
by slowly accruing power until you can say hey listen this is the way I'm going to
do it
and you get good enough ratings that they they just can't pull the trigger okay and so
for example
general cable news uh... ideology is
you do a really short intro and then you get to the guest right
Rachel said
no I'm going to do a long intro cause I want to tell a story I love that and she's
absolutely right and it's worked for for her and she's number one at the station
but she's broke some of the rules and she did it in a smart way
and she got a great audience for it and this speech that they had with me I'm not
sure that they've had with any other hosts
why you know it depends on the circumstances right but I've never got
any indication from the other hosts that they had that speech
so you gotta keep it real you gotta understand and why is it easy to
have that speech with me well all the other hosts have contracts all ready and
management has already said we like these guys that's why we hired them and
hence our reputation is tied to them in some degree right but if you
don't have the permanent contract yet then they could put more pressure on you
to get you to play ball and remember I am by far
the most the hardest on the Obama administration doesn't mean the other hosts aren't hard on him
at times when he deserves it but I'm clearly the hardest on the Obama administration
and so
I've got the least amount of power
and I'm the toughest on Washington if will and not just the Obama administration
but you know uh... all Washington and you know I've said on the air I think most
politicians are corrupt and I remember my guest was like what
what how can you say that
these are honorable gentlemen
I am not going to do a show where I pretend
most of the politicians in Washington are honorable gentleman hell no right
so and look Ed Schultz is a bull and yeah and sometimes he gets in trouble
for it right but he charges hard and Dylan Ratigan I'm shocked that he's still on the air
it's a minor miracle and thank god because that guy is you know whether
you agree with him or don't agree with him he definitely tells the truth
and he is non-partisan he goes after both parties without any fear so blesses heart so
they've got some great hosts at MSNBC
so don't hold it against those folks I'm just telling you the particular story that
happened to me why I was uncomfortable with it why I decided not to go in that
direction
and oh by the way
I'm you know look and by the way you know as a matter of like oh am I principled
and some people have said very nice things and some people have said very bad things et cetera
in the press but
understand too that you know as we do the segment what would jesus do
morality is you know is a shifting thing right so I was able to take
that tough stance why for the same reason that I was able to get on MSNBC
in the first place
you guys
because I have the TYT army behind me I got a show that's sitting here at half a
billion views
up to a million views a day so and that's because you guys so I can come
back here and do it exactly the kind of show I want to do
and kick ass and give you the actual truth and take it to power and tell them and
let them know that they're not coming for me I'm coming for them
and that's because of you guys and the first time I got the MSNBC job was
because of you guys you know wrote in the letters and emails et cetera
et cetera
and I can't thank you enough for that it was an
unbelievable experience an eye-opening experience and it confirmed
what we had always suspected
power is very very strong and tends to have some degree of influence in our
media
but here at The Young Turks we're going to fight back against that