Trump’s Event did not Pull in More Viewers than Biden’s

Yassin Osman

Politics

20th October 2020

Trump’s Event did not Pull in More Viewers than Biden’s

600,000 viewers less than Biden’s(GettyImages).

The Claim

Donald Trump’s town hall received more viewers than Biden’s broadcasted event.

News posted on

Emerging story

On October 16, users across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook began posting that Trump outmatched Biden in viewer ratings. The post began trending after it was posted on a Trump supporter’s fan page, with 131,000 followers on Instagram, stating that 190,000 viewers were watching President Trump’s NBC town hall event, whilst Biden’s ABC event garnered 20,000. The post has received over 2,605 likes.

Similarly, a user on Facebook posted two still images of the debate, highlighting the number of viewers as 5,381 for Biden, and 19,000 for Trump, implying that more viewers were tuned on to NBC News.
On Twitter, users proclaimed that Trump had in fact received over 1 million views more than Biden when considering streaming services.

Misbar’s Analysis

According to multiple sources, Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s town hall on ABC had an average of 14.1 million viewers. On the other hand, Trump’s event, which simultaneously aired on three separate TV channels including NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC, had a combined total of 13.5 million views, which is 600,000 viewers less than Biden’s.

In terms of online streaming, 153,600 viewers were watching the NBC News YouTube channel at the end of Trump's town hall. On ABC News' YouTube channel, 507,445 viewers were shown at the end of Biden's event. In total, Biden's town hall was still more widely watched at 3.1 million views on ABC News' YouTube channel, compared with 1.6 million for NBC News.

When comparing the TV ratings, as well as the streaming services viewership, Biden received more viewers than Trump for the town hall. Misbar found the circulating claim false.