Supposedly, Donald Trump’s return to CNN was going to be a massive ratings win for the perennially third-place news network, and while Wednesday night’s town hall with the criminally indicted sex offender did indeed manage to lift CNN to first place in the timeslot, the overall numbers were significantly lower than an average night of primetime programming on Fox News and also much lower than the ratings CNN achieved when it featured Trump in 2016.
Former CNN media analyst Brian Stelter reported the results of the overnight ratings.
“Just in: CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump averaged 3.1 million total viewers. The event outrated Fox and MSNBC, as expected, but these are not 2015/16 level numbers for Trump — not even close.”
“In the key 25- to 54-year-old demo, the town hall averaged 703,000, about five times higher than CNN’s typical performance at 8pm.”
Here’s a comparison of the 3.1 million viewers CNN managed to draw last night in comparison to other Trump appearances on the network:
- March 2016: 3.2 million
- 2015 GOP primary debate: 23 million
Considering that a verdict in the defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll had been handed down just a day before the town hall on CNN, the network was projected to clean up in the ratings. Instead, they managed to draw less than what Tucker Carlson used to garner on an average primetime broadcast.
The vast majority of the American viewing public is sick and tired of Donald Trump, his lies, and his vitriol. That doesn’t exactly bode well for him as he heads into the 2024 election with numerous legal problems hanging over him.
