NBC News Group and ABC News went head to head in the 8 p.m. ET hour Thursday with highly publicized town halls featuring the two presidential candidates. (TVNewser)
Joe Biden’s town hall on ABC averaged 14.1 million viewers, easily surpassing the Nielsen ratings for President Trump’s town hall on NBC. (CNN Business)
Trump brought in 13.5 million across NBC, MSNBC and CNBC combined. In terms of the two cablers, MSNBC contributed 1.8 million viewers and CNBC just over 700,000, meaning that Biden beat Trump 14.1 million to 11 million in the direct broadcast battle. (Variety)
Biden’s town hall ran from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET while Trump’s ran from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. But even when compared head-to-head, Biden had 14.3 million viewers for the hour of Trump’s town hall. (NBC News)
ABC also topped the key news demographic of adults 25-54 with a 3.8 rating, versus 3.1 for NBC, and among adults 18-49 with a 3.0 to NBC’s 2.2. (THR / Live Feed)