BREAKING: Biden’s Town Hall on ABC Beats Trump’s on 3 NBC Channels By Nearly One Million Viewers
UPDATE 1:20 p.m.: The final numbers are in.
NBC’s town hall with President Donald Trump, which aired on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC, drew a grand total of 13 million viewers.
ABC’s town hall with former Vice President Joe Biden, which aired on ABC alone, drew nearly 1 million more viewers, coming in at 13.9 million.
That’s according to CNN, which was first to break news of the final Nielsen ratings for the two competing town halls.
Read our original story on the early ratings below.
Overnight ratings for the dueling presidential town halls are in, and Vice President Joe Biden’s ABC event drew more viewers overall than NBC’s town hall with President Donald Trump.
The Wrap has a breakdown of the numbers:
On ABC, Biden drew 12.7 million viewers from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. On NBC alone, Trump got 10.4 million viewers in the same time slot.
Including the full 9 o’clock hour for Biden, the ABC event’s viewership average was 12.2 million.
Biden also beat Trump among adults 18-49, with a 2.6 rating to the president’s 1.7 rating.
To be clear, the early numbers do not include MSNBC, which simulcast the Trump town hall. So he could earn a boost in the final numbers. More reliable ratings are expected in a few hours.
Both town hall events started at 8 p.m., but the Trump event lasted only one hour, while the Biden event was scheduled to last until 9:30, but went long.
ABC announced the town hall event with Biden shortly after President Trump declined to participate in the second presidential debate. In the days that followed the first debate, President Trump was diagnosed as infected with Covid-19, and as a matter of safety, the Commission for Presidential Debates announced the second would be virtual, which did not please Mr. Trump.
NBC announced the competing town hall shortly before the ABC town hall, which led to broad criticism from both inside and outside the network.
