Biden town hall on CNN finishes third in cable news race

CNN’s town hall featuring 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden delivered 1.15 million viewers on Monday night to finish third in a cable news race against Fox News and MSNBC, according to early ratings from Nielsen Media Research. 

Overall, the 1.15 million total viewers tuning in to see Biden from 9:00 pm to 10:15 pm ET was a 13 percent drop when compared to the last town hall featuring the former vice president on Oct. 10 on the same network, which registered 1.34 million viewers. 

Fox News’ “Hannity” at 9:00 p.m. and “The Ingraham Angle” at 10:00 p.m. took in an average of 2.9 million total viewers during that the time Biden event aired from Iowa. 

MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” and “The Rachel Maddow Show” finished second with 2.69 million viewers. 

In the 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet most, the order of finish was the same, with Hannity and Ingraham registering 434,000 viewers in the category, followed by Hayes and Maddow 428,000 and the Biden town hall with 296,000. 

The town halls come ahead of the next Democratic debate on Nov. 20 co-hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post from Atlanta, GA.  

In Iowa, South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg surged to the top of Monmouth University’s latest poll released Tuesday, capturing 22 percent support. Biden is second with 19 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) at 18 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with 13 percent. 

Buttigieg polled only at 8 percent in the same poll in August. 

The first-in-the-nation caucuses will take place on Feb. 3, 2020.