Alec Baldwin ratings: Critics rip ‘boring’ MSNBC talk show premiere

Some may wonder why Alec Baldwin is doing a talk show. Others may be puzzled why it’s apparently set in a steakhouse.

At any rate, “Up Late with Alec Baldwin� premiered at 10 p.m. Friday with about 654,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen. (Yes, evidently 10 p.m. qualifies as “up late� for MSNBC’s audience.)

That performance wasn’t too bad for a Friday night, but it was nowhere near the 1.5 million that showed up for Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News Channel. However, building a talk show following takes time.

PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments

The critics weren’t in a forgiving mood. The premiere featured the former “30 Rock� actor and his guest, New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, nestled into a green banquette in a set that looked like it was built for a mob-meeting scene in “Goodfellas.�

Slate called it “My Dinner with Alec� and described the proceedings as “willfully wonky.� The Daily Beast called it a “snooze.�

Baldwin’s conservative detractors were predictably even less gracious. Twitter aggregator Twitchy called the show “soporific� and accumulated an array of unflattering tweets, many describing the show as “boring.�

Did you catch “Up Late�? What did you think of Baldwin’s performance?

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