http://mediamatters.org/items/200503100007Limbaugh claimed Scarborough Country is top-rated show on MSNBC; it's not true On the March 9 edition of his radio show, syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh wrongly claimed that Scarborough Country, hosted by former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough, a Florida Republican, "probably" has more viewers than any other program on cable news channel MSNBC. After airing a clip from MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews in which Andrea Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent, criticized Republicans, Limbaugh commented, "And, here she is on TV talking about how mean-spirited the Republicans are! It's just off the wall. You take a look at the ratings at MSNBC -- this is one of the reasons why nobody is watching this. Scarborough has probably got the highest number they've got on that network."
But according to Nielsen ratings for February, provided by the online magazine TVNewser, MSNBC's highest-rated program is Hardball with Chris Matthews, which averaged 327,000 households per night. Scarborough Country comes in fourth among MSNBC programs with 236,000 households viewing. In addition to Hardball, MSNBC's Imus in the Morning and MSNBC Investigates also averaged more viewers than Scarborough Country.Yeah, the subject line was sarcastic!