ABC’s primetime special featuring Trump was a ratings flop.
“President Donald Trump’s much-teased interview with ABC was not the ratings bonanza the numbers-obsessed president likely would have wanted,” Politico noted on Monday.
The program, which featured ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos following Trump for 30 hours, came in third place during it’s time slot on Sunday night, behind the U.S. Open on Fox and “60 Minutes” on CBS. And Trump only gave a slight ratings bump to “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” which aired right before him. That program might have been more illuminating.
ABC’s primetime special featuring Trump was a ratings flop.
“President Donald Trump’s much-teased interview with ABC was not the ratings bonanza the numbers-obsessed president likely would have wanted,” Politico noted on Monday.
The program, which featured ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos following Trump for 30 hours, came in third place during it’s time slot on Sunday night, behind the U.S. Open on Fox and 60 Minutes on CBS. And Trump only gave a slight ratings bump to “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” which aired right before him. That program might have been more illuminating.
Trump’s special attracted 3.91 million viewers, far below the 6 million viewers ABC attracted in the same time slot a week ago with “Celebrity Family Feud,” hosted by comedian Steve Harvey.
That means millions more people were interested in seeing outspoken Trump critics Chrissy Teigen and John Legend take on the cast of Vanderpump Rules than watch Trump repeat his tired lines and weird behavior in front of Stephanopoulos.
The few who tuned in on Sunday saw Trump attack chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for coughing, lie about his lack of accomplishments in the presidency, and whine that he has had it tougher than President Abraham Lincoln.
It is well known that Lincoln was assassinated during his presidency, while Trump has merely had his incompetence and inadequacies pointed out regularly.
Even compared to political content in the same time slot, Trump underperformed. Last November, ABC News hosted former First Lady Michelle Obama for a special on a Sunday night to discuss her book, Becoming, and it drew 5.5 million viewers.
The ratings show that Americans are continuing to tune out Trump. He has always been unpopular and polling shows him behind the top 2020 presidential contenders.
Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016; now he’s trailing golfers, the team at 60 Minutes and even Steve Harvey. Sad.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
