CNN’s drive-in town hall for Democratic nominee Joe Biden scored about 3.3 million viewers for the network, marking the highest viewership of the dozens of town halls CNN has hosted with presidential hopefuls since early 2019.
The network finished second in the cable news race on Thursday night to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who delivered 4.6 million viewers in the 8 p.m. EDT hour, according to early figures from Nielsen Media Research.
The 3.3 million viewers who tuned in for Biden’s town hall near his hometown of Scranton, Pa., far surpassed the previous record of 1.96 million who watched CNN’s town hall with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in January 2019.
In the 25- to 54-year-old demographic sought by advertisers, Fox News averaged 774,000 viewers during the Biden event, which ran from 8-9:15 p.m. EDT. CNN was second in the category with 732,000 viewers, followed by MSNBC, which netted 352,000, according to early Nielsen figures.
Fox’s coverage of President Trump’s campaign rally in Wisconsin was the second most-watched offering of Thursday evening, scoring 4.4 million viewers from 9:15-10:30 p.m.
Biden and Trump are set to square off for the first presidential debate Sept. 29 in Cleveland. “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace will serve as moderator.
The first general election debate of the 2016 presidential campaign drew 84 million viewers, making it the highest-rated debate in television history.