CNN’s Republican Presidential Town Hall with former President Trump ranked No. 1 among all cable news broadcasts Wednesday in both total viewers and adults 25-54, and No. 2 in all of cable, behind only NBA Playoffs on TNT, according to Nielsen live plus same day data.
Hosted by Kaitlan Collins, the Town Hall out of St. Anselm College in New Hampshire averaged 3.31 million total viewers from 8-9:15 p.m. ET. Fox News averaged 1.45 million and MSNBC averaged 1.4 million total viewers in the same time period.
Among adults 25-54, CNN beat all cable news competitors with 781,000. Fox News averaged 140,000 and MSNBC averaged 160,000 viewers from the demo in the same town hall time period.
| CNN Trump Town Hall (5/10/23, 8-9:15 p.m. ET) |
CNN | Fox News | MSNBC |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 3,308,000 | 1,446,000 | 1,398,000 |
| • A25-54: | 781,000 | 140,000 | 160,000 |
CNN also ranked No. 1 in prime time (8-11 p.m. ET) on Wednesday among both total viewers and A25-54, averaging 2.29 million and 510,000 viewers, respectively.
The network was in need of a Nielsen ratings win and it certainly received one with last night’s town hall, criticism be damned.
That said, Wednesday’s event came up short to CNN’s 2020 Joe Biden Town Hall, which averaged 3.465 million total viewers on Sept. 17, 2020. Last night’s CNN Trump town hall also drew a smaller audience than Trump’s last five town halls on Fox News. However, the CNN Trump town hall delivered a larger A25-54 demo audience than Trump’s first town hall of the 2020 election cycle on Fox News, 781,000 vs. 744,000. Also, last night’s event drew more viewers than Trump’s last town hall appearance on CNN on April 12, 2016 at 9 p.m. ET, 3.31 million total viewers vs. 2.17 million total viewers; 781,000 A25-54 vs. 579,000 A25-54.
Combining TV plus digital live streaming produced a combined average audience of 3.41 million total viewers. Digital viewing added a 3% lift to CNN’s linear total average audience for the town hall, ranking 9th among all CNN town halls on record.
In sum, the ratings aren’t good but they also aren’t awful. Some might say that mirrored the event itself.