Struggling CNN dropped into fourth place behind Newsmax for prime time viewership ratings last Friday night, the slump following a rare climb to the top driven by Donald Trump’s town hall appearance.
Forbes reports CNN could only garner an average total audience of 335,000 viewers, trailing behind Newsmax’s 357,000 viewers during the evening.
Fox News finished first in prime with 1.44 million viewers, and MSNBC was second overall with 1.084 million viewers. Forbes gave deeper analysis, detailing:
Among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers, CNN climbed to third place, with an average audience of 87,000 viewers. Fox News was first in the key demo with 109,000 viewers, followed by MSNBC (98,000 viewers). Newsmax was fourth with 45,000 viewers.
Each of CNN’s prime time hours trailed the competition on Newsmax Friday, with Anderson Cooper 360 delivering a total audience of 447,000 viewers at 8 p.m. ET, taking fourth place behind Fox News Channel’s Fox News Tonight (1.302 million viewers), MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes (1.076 million viewers), and Newsmax’s Eric Bolling (467,000 viewers). At 9 p.m. ET, FNC’s Hannity was first with 1.606 million viewers, followed by MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight (1.207 million viewers), Newsmax’s Chris Plante (325,000 viewers) and CNN’s The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper (293,000 viewers).
Just 48-hours before the precipitous drop CNN was riding high after Trump’s town hall as hosted by the network.
Trump’s confident, combative display yielded ratings about five times higher than the network’s typical viewership in the 8 p.m. slot among the 25-54 age demographic, as Breitbart News reported.
Former President Donald Trump steamrolled CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during Wednesday’s Townhall event in New Hampshire. https://t.co/WDSLPdTn0D
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 11, 2023
The network scored 3.12 million total viewers and 703,000 viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic in the 8 p.m. hour.
The former president was quick to note the boost he gave CNN.
“People are criticizing CNN for giving me a Forum to tell the TRUTH. I believe it was a very smart thing that they did, with Sky High Ratings that they haven’t seen in a very long time,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “It was by far the biggest Show of the night, the week, and the month!”
Trump has since scolded the network for not doing more to applaud his appearance, telling The Messenger he was “amazed to see” the network was “traumatized” by the event.
As Breitbart News reported, Trump spoke with the newly launched news organization in a wide-ranging interview published Monday that partly touched on his CNN town hall victory.
When asked what he gleaned from the event, Trump told The Messenger he “was surprised by the level of hostility,” as he thought the network was trying to win viewers back.
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