Overview
- During live coverage of the Obama Presidential Center on Thursday, June 18, Tom Hanks told MS NOW correspondent Jacob Soboroff, “What can I do for the 800 people watching MS NOW?” and later said, “add a zero,” in a short on‑camera exchange.
- A clip of the exchange was posted online and quickly drew hundreds of thousands of views, and MS NOW has not issued a substantive response beyond a declined comment reported by one outlet.
- News outlets used the moment to place the joke in the network’s ratings context, citing Nielsen figures that vary by metric and period and put MS NOW’s audience in the range of several hundred thousand up to roughly 1.1–1.4 million on some primetime or quarter measures, with the channel continuing to trail Fox News.
- Hanks went on to praise Barack Obama’s remarks at the opening and described the event’s conditions, and Soboroff took the jab in stride on air before returning to coverage.
- The gag arrived against background reporting that MS NOW rebranded from MSNBC in November and has been undergoing ownership and leadership changes, a broader story outlets say the viral moment may reinforce about the network’s positioning and public profile.