CNN’s primetime town hall with Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley drew a fraction of audience compared to its fiery sitdown with former President Donald Trump.
Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN, attracted 562,000 viewers for Sunday’s event moderated by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, according to Mediaite.
Trump’s May 10 town hall event scored the Chris Licht-run network 3.3 million viewers — 80% more than his rival for the Republican nomination.
Haley drew just 136,000 in the highly-coveted 25-54 age demographic, compared with Trump’s 781,000, Mediate reported.
Haley’s town hall was beaten in the 8 p.m. slot by the Fox News program hosted by Mark Levin, who pulled in 1.2 million viewers, according to Mediaite’s figures.
MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan ranked third with 450,000.
Haley’s TV audience was more on par with CNN’s recent bout of disastrous ratings, which averaged less than 500,000 during prime time in May.
The so-called Trump bump CNN experienced during its town hall event with the GOP candidate came to a crashing halt just 48 hours after the former President’s highly-controversial appearance.
During his 70-minute on the network, Trump recounted his actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, continued to insist the 2020 election was rigged and called moderator Kaitlan Collins “nasty.”
Haley, meanwhile, spent her time on stage bashing her competitors, including Trump — whom she worked for as his ambassador to the United Nations — for defending the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
She also called Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis hypocritical for spending taxpayers’ dollars in his ongoing legal battle with Disney after he dissolved the company’s longtime special tax district overseeing its Orlando-area theme parks.
CNN hosts a town hall with Mike Pence on Thursday.
The town halls with Republican presidential candidates are part of Licht’s effort to pivot the network away from the left-leaning coverage under its predecessor, Jeff Zucker.
A damaging exposé published by The Atlantic in the wake of the “fury of criticism” CNN has been facing since Trump’s town hall has revealed that Licht’s days could be numbered at the network.
David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, had defended the network’s decision to give Trump a forum.
“He’s the frontrunner, he has to be on our network,” Zaslav said of Trump during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last month.
