CNN Democratic Town Hall Is Most Watched in Cable News History
It didn’t attract debate-level ratings, but CNN saw a good tune-in Monday — winning among the cable news networks — for its Democratic Town Hall gathering in Iowa.
Coming just a week before the Iowa caucus, “CNN Iowa Democratic Candidates Town Hall” averaged 3.2 million viewers from 9-11 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen. The event, hosted by Chris Cuomo, was No. 1 in cable news for the night in both total viewers and the key news demo of adults 25-54 (944,000). In 25-54, CNN outdrew the combined deliveries of Fox News (407,000) and MSNBC (205,000).
According to CNN, the 3.2 million makes Monday’s town hall the most-watched primary candidates’ cable news event (excluding debates) on record. By comparison, last night’s event drew more than double the demo audience (944,000 vs. 416,000) of MNSBC’s recent “First in the South Presidential Forum,” though that one had the disadvantage of airing on a lighter-watched Friday night.
The post-program, “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon” (11 p.m.-1 a.m. ET) also ranked No. 1 on Monday among total viewers (1.275 million) and the demo (425,000). In the time period, Fox News was second (1.136 million, including 314,000 adults 25-54) and MSNBC a distant third (407,000 total viewers, including 117,000 adults 25-54).
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