Trump Effect: CNN’s Primetime Ratings Skyrocket After Town Hall

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a CNN Town Hall with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., on May 10, 2023, in a still from video. CNN/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump’s participation in a CNN town hall on Wednesday night delivered a ratings boost for the beleaguered cable news channel’s ratings.

According to Mediaite, citing Nielsen data, CNN obtained 3.12 million total viewers for the 8 p.m. Trump special—far more than the network usually draws on a weeknight. Of that figure, some 703,000 viewers were among the 25–54 age demographic, the ratings show.

In March, CNN averaged some 473,000 viewers across all demographics for the primetime hours, data shows. That was behind both MSNBC and Fox News.

For Wednesday night, “Fox News Tonight” with Kayleigh McEnany came in second place, with 1.41 million viewers, the ratings show, and MNSBC drew 1.37 million viewers. Notably, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. show averaged more than 3 million viewers in March before Carlson and Fox News parted ways late last month under mysterious circumstances.

The early Nielsen data likely won’t reflect the town hall’s full viewership. It also did not include data from CNN.com and CNN’s streaming apps that aired the Trump town hall.

Meanwhile, clips from Trump’s CNN event were shared far and wide on social media Wednesday, with many turning his responses and comments into memes. YouTube videos showing several Trump statements also drew significant engagement as of Thursday afternoon.

During the town hall, Trump laid out his 2024 agenda as he sparred with CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins and took questions from members of the audience in New Hampshire.

At one point, Trump vowed to pardon many protesters who were sentenced in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the Capitol. He argued that many demonstrators have been unfairly treated, while calling slain Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by an officer that day, “a patriot.”

“I am inclined to pardon many of them,” Trump said. “I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control.”

The former president, which polls suggest he is leading the GOP field in the 2024 presidential election, also weighed in on the debt crisis and said Republican lawmakers should not give in to White House demands. Republicans want to pass spending cuts alongside raising the debt ceiling, while Democrats say the two provisions should be considered separately.

“I say to the Republicans out there—congressmen, senators—if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default. And I don’t believe they’re going to do a default because I think the Democrats will absolutely cave because you don’t want to have that happen. But it’s better than what we’re doing right now because we’re spending money like drunken sailors,” Trump said.

Also during the town hall, Trump responded to a New York jury not finding him liable for rape but sexual battery in a civil trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. The former president said that he doesn’t know Carroll, that he was “silenced” from speaking publicly about the case, and that Carroll is a “whack job” who “made up” a story about an encounter that occurred decades ago.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a CNN Town Hall with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., on May 10, 2023, in a still from video. CNN/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

“My poll numbers just came out—they went up,” Trump also said when asked about the verdict. “She wasn’t raped, OK? … and I didn’t do anything else either, OK, because I don’t know who the hell she is,” Trump said, triggering audience laughter.

After the verdict, Carroll said through a lawyer that “this victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.” Earlier this week, Trump’s lawyers told The Epoch Times that his team will file an appeal and suggested the case will be overturned.

Response

CNN, meanwhile, has drawn criticism from a range of Democrat and left-wing pundits, who claimed that Trump shouldn’t have been given a platform to speak on the network. In response, CNN CEO Chris Licht was defiant and argued that Trump enjoys widespread support across the United States.

“While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story,” Licht said on a conference call, according to reports. He noted that the people who clapped are “a large swath of America,” arguing that corporate media outlets have failed to acknowledge these people for years.

In a front-page CNN article and in his email newsletter, media reporter Oliver Darcy appeared to be critical of his employer and Licht. Darcy, a frequent critic of Trump, wrote that “it’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” although he did not provide many specifics in his newsletter.

He described the performance as “Trump’s unhinged social media feed brought to life on stage” and claimed that CNN’s Collins had been “put in an uncomfortable position, given the town hall was conducted in front of a Republican audience that applauded Trump, giving a sense of unintended endorsement to his shameful antics.”

Top CNN anchor Jake Tapper, too, appeared to be critical of the town hall. Without elaborating, Tapper alleged that his network does not “have enough time to fact-check” what Trump said.

On the right, Fox News contributor Ben Domenech said Trump held a successful forum, telling host Laura Ingraham: “This is exactly the kind of forum in which he succeeds. We know this now. And CNN should know this now.”

And former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon praised the former commander-in-chief, saying the CNN town hall was a “humiliation of the mainstream media” and called CNN a “disgrace.”

The Epoch Times contacted a CNN representative for comment.