CNN mayor Biden loses to Fox News and MSNBC in hearings

CNN’s town hall on Wednesday night with President Joe Biden in Ohio barely made a ripple in the race for prime-time cable ratings, as the network drew just over half of Fox News viewers and finished a hair behind MSNBC.

Deadline, citing Nielsen ratings, reported that CNN averaged 1.46 million viewers between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., when the President was on stage in Cincinnati. This is a 58% drop in viewership from CNN’s previous town hall with Biden last February, which drew 3.5 million viewers.

During the same 75-minute span on Wednesday, Fox averaged 2.76 million viewers for “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and the opening act for “Hannity”. The latter program included a town hall with Republicans from Florida, including Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Marco Rubio, Representative Maria Elvira Salazar and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, discussing the ongoing pro-freedom protests in Cuba.

MSNBC edged out CNN for second among the Big Three cable networks, averaging 1.47 million viewers for “All in with Chris Hayes” and the opening act of “The Rachel Maddow Show”.

CNN topped MSNBC by 100,000 in the coveted demographic of 25-54 viewers at mayoralty, bringing 297,000 of that audience to 197,000 for MSNBC. However, both channels finished well behind Fox, which drew 475,000 demographic viewers between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

Overall, Fox News won prime time Wednesday night with an average of 2.36 million viewers compared to 1.63 million for MSNBC and 1.28 million for CNN. In the 25-54 age group, Fox averaged 400,000 viewers, while CNN attracted 279,000 and MSNBC 209,000.

The town hall, hosted by CNN presenter Don Lemon, was held in a half-empty auditorium at Mount St. Joseph University. Images tweeted by members of the traveling press showed more than a dozen rows of empty seats at the back of the hall, with audiences concentrated in the front rows in favor of CNN cameras.

CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas told The Post on Wednesday evening that the audience size was “typical … for a CNN town hall.”

Biden made the news at the event by touting the number of coronavirus vaccinations in the United States and declaring ‘this is not a pandemic’, before warning that children under 12 should likely wearing masks to school this fall, unless they soon become eligible for a vaccine. .

“My expectation, in talking with the group of scientists – we got over 20 of them together – as well as others in the field,” Biden said, “is that somewhere maybe early in the school year , end of August, beginning of In September, October, you will get final approval saying that the FDA said, “No, that’s it. ‘It’s okay’.”