CNN’s DeSantis-Hawley debate fails to beat Trump town hall

CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 10, 2024, failed to grab attention away from Fox’s town hall with Donald Trump.

CNN has been trumpeting its wins in the P25-54 and P18-34 demos, but its total viewership of 2.53 million viewers pales in comparison to a live town hall with Trump — which racked up 4.3 million viewers total on Fox’s conservative commentary channel.

The 2.53 million figure was also significantly lower than other GOP debates hosted in both the 2016 and 2024 cycle, which often racked up over 10 million viewers apiece.

When ratings for only those two demos are considered, CNN was top in cable news for the hours of 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., which included post-debate analysis.

On digital, CNN’s Iowa debate was also available to stream on various platforms, including CNN.com without authentication and CNN Max. 

The debate reached 6.37 million viewers across TV and CNN Max, combining Nielsen linear and internal CNN Max data. Some simple arithmetic would suggest that about 3.84 million viewers streamed the debate, though CNN, like most streamers, does not publicly release its viewership data or break it down to specifics, so that figure has not been verified. 

Concurrent live streams peaked for the day at 106,000 at 9:47 p.m. across CNN’s owned and operated platforms, according to the network’s internal data.

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