Joe Biden’s Debut Presidential Town Hall Is A Ratings Winner For CNN & POTUS

Dominic Patten
·2 min read
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The President of the United States had a very good night at his CNN town hall on Tuesday. Not only did Joe Biden make it clear there was a new kind of POTUS in office, but the seasoned politician won the ratings and viewership race in a near landslide.

In his first such appearance since moving into the White House on January 20, Biden’s 9-10:15 p.m. ET stint on the AT&T-owned cable newser snagged 3.5 million viewers and an audience of 880,000 in the adults 25-54 news demographic. That’s a small 6% bump in total sets of eyeballs from how he in his last socially distanced CNN town hall back on September 17. The results of last night’s Anderson Cooper-moderated event also topped both Fox News Channel’s Hannity and MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show in total viewers by 24% and 18%, respectively.

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Biden’s town hall beat Tucker Carlson Tonight, the second most-watched show on cable news last night, by about 4.2%

Focusing on the 25-54 demo, Biden’s town hall at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater before an audience of about 60 voters whooped FNC and MSNBC by 124% and 108%, respectively, according to Nielsen data. It delivered a victorious Wednesday primetime to CNN in the demo.

Overall in terms of viewers, Fox News was the most watched cabler newser in primetime last night with 2.9 million viewers,. compared with CNN’s 2.6 million.

Mainly centered on the coronavirus pandemic, the vaccine rollout and getting the crippled economy back on its feet, the town hall gave the often loquacious and always emphatic Biden a chance to show his command of facts and policy, as well as connect with those in the Pabst and at home. The town hall was also noticeable for Biden’s dismissal of his predecessor Donald Trump and the February 13 acquittal in Trump’s second impeachment trial

“I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump, I don’t want to talk about him anymore,” said Biden, who threw effective shade on the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host, labeling him as the “former guy.”

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