Ratings Nightmare: Fox News, MSNBC Overshadow CNN’s Biden Town Hall

US President Joe Biden participates in a CNN Town Hall hosted by Don Lemon (R) at Mount St
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

A town hall put on by CNN featuring President Joe Biden failed to shake up cable ratings on Wednesday night as the left-leaning network sat in the shadows of Fox News and MSNBC for primetime hours.

The town hall, which was moderated by CNN anchor Don Lemon and garnered just a little more than half the amount of the total viewers Fox News had at the same time, finished third in ratings for Wednesday night, falling just behind MSNBC.

According to Deadline, which reported on the latest ratings from Nielsen, CNN’s town hall drew in 1.46 million viewers between 8:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. as Biden spoke in Cincinnati. As reported by Deadline, that is “down significantly from CNN’s town hall with Biden in February, which drew 3.5 million viewers” and outpaced the audience on Fox News and MSNBC.

During that same 74-minute time frame on Wednesday, Fox News received an average of 2.76 million viewers for Tucker Carlson Tonight and a portion of Hannity, which was putting on a town hall event with Florida Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar to discuss the Cuban protests.

MSNBC, with a slight edge over CNN, saw an average of 1.47 million viewers for All in with Chris Hayes and the first part of The Rachel Maddow Show.

“CNN did better in the rankings for the 25-54 demo, with 297,000,” Deadline reported. “That was ahead of MSNBC with 197,000, but well behind Fox News with 475,000.”

For primetime viewership on Wednesday, Fox News dominated across the board with an average of 2.36 million viewers, compared to MSNBC’s 1.63 million and CNN’s 1.28 million.

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