A highly controversial “town hall” appearance Wednesday evening on CNN by former President Donald Trump averaged 3.308 million total viewers and 781,000 viewers in the coveted adults 25-54 demo, according to updated Nielsen data provided by the network.
That performance was good enough to trounce cable news rivals Fox News Channel and MSNBC in primetime — a feat ratings-starved CNN hasn't done too much of regularly.
CNN noted that the 2024 presidential hopeful's Wednesday night performance generated the second biggest audience for a single-candidate town hall since 2016, trailing only a Joe Biden appearance in September 2020, which averaged 3.465 million viewers.
However, critics said the viewership was modest, especially compared to the cable news audiences Trump generated during his frequent appearances in the run-up to his successful 2016 presidential bid.
In the words of media business pundit and former CNN on-air figure Brian Stelter, "These are not 2015/16 level numbers for Trump — not even close."
Also communicating on Twitter, current CNN analyst and former New York Times media reported Bill Carter added, "Has to be considered surprising (stunning?) result given both previous Trump ratings power + massive build-up."
Notably, the pay TV ecosystem within which CNN lives was about 25% bigger eight years ago, but there were other factors.
Carter suggested that CNN's core audience just doesn't favor Trump. He also mentioned this possible factor: "Trump TV magic is gone."
Or, as virulent Trump critic Keith Olbrermann also noted, CNN "sold their soul for nothing."
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Indeed, given the former president's strong identification with the January 6 Insurrection, not to mention his myriad legal woes, both criminal and civil, CNN and parent company Warner Bros. Discovery faced arduous criticism about the appearance just in its run-up over the past few weeks.
With Trump facing a friendly crowd at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire Wednesday, and CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins — a former denizen of Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller — seemingly overmatched amid a barrage of sustained Trump lies about such things as the 2020 election being rigged, the criticism is much worse on Thursday.
All of this comes before mentioning Trump's ugly attacks during the telecast on writer E. Jean Carroll, the writer who just successfully sued him for sexual battery and defamation.
CNN president Chris Licht praised Collins for her town hall performance.
“I absolutely unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night, because it laid bare and created, in the words of Joe Scarborough, a political earthquake, and that people woke up and they know what the stakes are in this election in a way that they didn’t the day before," Licht said during a virtual editorial staff meeting for CNN Thursday morning.
But gender equity advocacy group Ultraviolet, which urged CNN not to move forward with platforming Trump, called on the network to fire Licht on Thursday.
“CNN’s town hall was a disaster,” Shaunna Thomas, executive director of Ultraviolet, said. "CNN knew Donald Trump would lie about the 2020 election and make reckless, untrue claims about everything from January 6th to abortion. He even mocked E. Jean Carroll the day after a federal court convicted him of defamation and sexual assault against her. CNN not only allowed Trump to do so — they enabled him.
“The network must take accountability by firing CEO Chris Licht, who knowingly broadcasted lies and conspiracies on national television," Thomas added.
