Who watched the skewering from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at the Al Smith dinner last night?
Well, at least 10.3 million people did on three cable news networks. (C-SPAN carried it as well) And when you consider Thursday Night Football averaged 14.2 million on CBS, and another 7 million were watching the Cubs-Dodgers NLCS Game 5 on FS1, it’s safe to say there was interest in what the presidential nominees had to say.
Trump’s remarks began at 9:03 p.m. sharp, and ended at 9:19 p.m. Clinton spoke from 9:22 to 9:40 p.m. Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Al Smith IV wrapped up the evening with final remarks. The event ended at 9:43 p.m. ET.
CNN won the hour across the board with 3.85 million total viewers and 1.34 million A25-54 viewers. The network televised the dinner from 9 until its completion, and then went back and forth to a panel of guests and then a split screen until 9:57 p.m.
Fox News also televised the dinner from 9 to 9:40 p.m., and then straight to The Kelly File, where the panel discussed both candidates’ remarks. Kelly then had a somewhat heated, yet brief interview with acting DNC chair Donna Brazile, who Trump mentioned in his remarks, during the final quarter hour. Fox News delivered 3.6 million total viewers, and 781,000 from the A25-54 demo.
Like CNN, MSNBC televised the dinner until 9:43, and then went to a split screen until 9:52 p.m. MSNBC delivered over 2.87 million total viewers, and 652,000 from the demo with Rachel Maddow hosting.