Symone D. Sanders, former spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris, went viral in 2017 for telling a CNN guest, “You can shut up.”

Since May 7, Sanders has been hosting her own program, Symone, on MSNBC… but she’s struggling to repeat the virality of her earlier cable news moment.

Sanders debuted her show to dismal ratings, according to Nielsen data reportedly reviewed by the New York Post.

The New York Post reported that Symone attracted only 361,000 total viewers, compared to 842,000 viewers for a program in the same timeslot on Fox News Channel.

In that timeslot, MSNBC drew a total audience only 42 percent as large as the audience of Fox News. Across all timeslots, the network drew 64 percent as many total viewers as Fox News last year, Nielsen data reveals.

If last year’s data is any indication, Sanders is lagging behind MSNBC’s other hosts.

Worse yet, the NY Post Sanders drew only 29,000 viewers in advertisers’ favorite demographic: people between the ages of 25 and 54. By comparison, Fox News Channel reportedly attracted 163,000 such viewers in the same timeslot.

Here’s a clip —

My first #SymoneSays pic.twitter.com/7PhjNu4RcY

— Symone D. Sanders Townsend (@SymoneDSanders) May 8, 2022

Sanders has continued her ties to the unpopular Biden administration. She invited First Lady Jill Biden as a guest on her debut broadcast.

Meanwhile, current White House press secretary Jen Psaki has committed to hosting a program on MSNBC after leaving the administration. Incoming press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre used to work for MSNBC as a political analyst, and she called Fox News “racist” while appearing on MSNBC’s AM Joy in 2020.

Still, Sanders has also spoken about her attempts to distance herself from the administration.

“I’m not here to be a spokesperson for the Biden administration… I had that job already,” Sanders told The Hill’s In the Know.

“I’m going to be honest, and sometimes the honesty means that what I have to say is not what the administration would have to say. And that’s fine, because it’s my show.”

The Horn editorial team