Business

Trump rally flop in Tulsa, but a hit on television

Posted June 23, 2020 7:00 am

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - Now it's apparent where many of President Donald Trump's supporters who stayed away from Saturday's campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were instead: they were home watching it on television.

Fox News Channel, which aired Trump's speech live, had the biggest Saturday night audience in the network's 24-year history, the Nielsen company said. During Trump's address at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Fox had 8.2 million people watching.

CNN and MSNBC aired only clips of Trump talking, yet each news network had about twice as many viewers as they normally get on Saturday nights. Collectively, the three networks had nearly 12 million viewers for its Trump coverage, Nielsen said.

For those in Oklahoma, the night's biggest story was the arena's empty seats.

In the absence of sports or first-run scripted series, news continues to be the dominant force in television viewing. Fox News Channel's prime-time average of 3.68 million viewers for the week topped all broadcast and cable networks.

ABC's prime-time interview of John Bolton by Martha Raddatz was seen by 6.2 million people on Sunday, third only to 'œAmerica's Got Talent'ť and 'œ60 Minutes'ť on broadcast networks last week.

CBS, with an average of 3.4 million viewers, was the most-watched broadcast network last week. NBC had 3.1 million, ABC had 2.7 million, Univision had 1.38 million, Fox had 1.35 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 760,000.

After Fox News, MSNBC had 1.98 million for second among the cable networks in prime time, CNN had 1.64 million, HGTV had 1.26 million and TLC had 1.19 million.

ABC's 'œWorld News Tonight'ť led the evening newscasts with an average of 8.7 million viewers. The 'œNBC Nightly News'ť had 7.4 million and the 'œCBS Evening News'ť had 5.2 million.

For the week of June 15-21, the top 20 shows, their networks and viewerships:

1. 'œAmerica's Got Talent,'ť NBC, 8.57 million.

2. 'œJustice with Judge Jeanine,'ť Fox News, 8.2 million.

3. 'œWatters World,'ť Fox News, 7.11 million.

4. 'œ60 Minutes,'ť CBS, 7.1 million.

5. 'œInterview with John Bolton,'ť ABC, 6.23 million.

6. 'œNCIS,'ť CBS, 5.9 million.

7. 'œYoung Sheldon,'ť CBS, 4.931 million.

8. 'œFBI,'ť CBS, 4.927 million.

9. 'œThe Greg Gutfeld Show,'ť Fox News, 4.64 million.

10. 'œHannity'ť (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.54 million.

11. 'œYellowstone,'ť Paramount, 4.23 million.

12. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Monday), 4.21 million.

13. 'œWorld of Dance,'ť NBC, 4.16 million.

14. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Wednesday), Fox News, 4.051 million.

15. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Tuesday), Fox News, 4.048 million.

16. 'œTucker Carlson Tonight'ť (Thursday), Fox News, 3.98 million.

17. 'œHannity'ť (Tuesday), Fox News, 3.9 million.

18. 'œHannity'ť (Thursday), Fox News, 3.861 million.

19. 'œThe Neighborhood,'ť CBS, 3.859 million.

20. 'œFBI: Most Wanted,'ť CBS, 3.829 million.

President Donald Trump speaks during his campaign rally at BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., Saturday, June 20, 2020. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP) The Associated Press

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