The town hall organized by CNN with Republican presidential pre-candidate Donald Trump attracted a large audience for the news channel. The event attracted more than 3 million viewers.
According to data published by Nielsen Media Research, the event, which was broadcast in prime time, had a total of 3.3 million viewers, which is three times more than CNN's usual numbers for the 8:00 pm time slot.
The same news network stated that Trump's town hall was CNN's second most successful single-candidate town hall since 2016. However, the ratings are still lower than Trump's ratings at other events hosted by other news networks. In fact, Trump's 2020 town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity drew 5 million total viewers.
The town hall was held Wednesday night in New Hampshire. The president brought a lot of energy to the screen seven years after the start of his first presidential campaign.
CNN tops 3 million viewers during Trump Town Hall https://t.co/EvGqxKACTK pic.twitter.com/VMG99JgawV
— The Hill (@thehill) May 11, 2023
The audience was packed with undecided Republicans from the state. CNN president Chris Licht highlighted the importance of the event for the country.
"I absolutely and unequivocally believe that the United States did very well with what we did last night," he said, claiming that while it might be uncomfortable for some to hear people applaud, that too is an important part of the story.
"The people in that audience represent a large swath of America. And the mistake the media made in the past is ignoring that those people exist. Just like you cannot ignore that President Trump exists," he said.
