Still-Embittered Trump Slams ‘Humiliating’ Ratings for Chris Wallace Recap Show On CNN – Network Responds
Former President Donald Trump lashed out at CNN anchor Chris Wallace over the ratings for the recap hour of Wallace’s newly rebranded interview program.
Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace debuted on HBO Max last week, and the first batch of three episodes featuring in-depth interviews with retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, filmmaker and media entrepreneur Tyler Perry, and pop-country superstar Shania Twain.
The show was first launched on the short-lived and now-defunct CNN+ streaming platform, so last week was a re-launch for the program. Under its new incarnation, full episodes drop on the streaming service each Friday, and 3 days later CNN airs a version recapping highlights of the episodes, Sundays at 7 pm.
It was the latter that was the subject of one of Trump’s brief “Truth Social” not-a-tweet postings which read “Chris Wallace’s CNN Show Debuts to Humiliating Ratings” and linked to a sneering Breitbart opinion piece aggregating the ratings and trashing the show — nearly a week after it debuted.
Trump also circulated the message via an email through his “Save America” PAC.
When reached for comment about Trump’s post, a CNN spokesperson told Mediaite that “Who’s Talking reached a massive subscriber base on Friday when it premiered with three fantastic episodes on HBO Max and an additional 350 million households around the world via CNN International simulcast. As you know, the program doesn’t follow a typical linear distribution model so its success won’t be determined like one. Live domestic TV viewers represent only fraction of its intended audience.”
According to Nielsen data for the time slot, CNN pulled in 425,000 total viewers at 7pm, placing second to Fox News for the hour but ahead of MSNBC.
The network says that it is “very happy to offer CNN viewers highlights from the interviews and know people are enjoying it there as well, but the CNN highlights are a portion of the audience for the show, and we’re very happy with its performance on HBO Max.”
They point out that “Streaming services don’t release data as a general rule so any data/ratings story is only telling a piece of the story.”
Trump has long harbored a grudge against Wallace — most notably over his performance as debate moderator — which Wallace spoke about as recently as last week’s edition of The Axe Files with host David Axelrod.
