How badly did Donald Trump’s CNN town hall fail? In the same format on the same network, President Biden drew more viewers than Trump.
The Washington Post has this interesting little nugget, “At a time when CNN was struggling to reverse declining viewership, the broadcast proved to be a ratings disappointment, with Nielsen reporting just 3.1 million total viewers. It was a big blow. inches from CNN’s typical 8 p.m. TV broadcast, but a smaller audience than CNN’s town hall with President Biden last summer (3.7 million) and six previous Trump town halls carried by Fox News – calling into question the power of attraction of CNN and Trump.”
Which is it? Do people not want to watch CNN, or do people not want to watch Trump?
The answer is that Donald Trump copied Fox News’ model of fan retention. When it comes to business structures, Trump and Fox News share the same DNA. The real consequence of this dynamic is that any network that decides to host Trump is unlikely to attract as many viewers as Fox News for the same event.
CNN seems to have many misconceptions about Trump and his supporters.
Trump himself isn’t important enough to drive viewers away from Fox and CNN. This dynamic suggests that CNN trashed its credibility with an audience that would never come.
None of this explains how Biden was able to attract more viewers than Trump on CNN. There are a considerable number of Americans who don’t want to see or hear Trump, and they have no interest in listening and watching the former president play his elders.
The numbers don’t lie, and what they tell us is that Joe Biden attracts more television than Donald Trump.
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Jason is the editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate studies focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association
