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Nikki Haley’s CNN Town Hall Down 83 Percent From Trump’s

The massive gap in viewership highlights Haley’s relative weakness in the GOP primary field, especially when compared to Trump.

GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley’s town hall on CNN may have sparked headlines for her blaming teen suicides on trans kids in locker rooms, but it only brought a fraction of the viewership of Donald Trump’s similar event. According to Nielsen, Haley’s Sunday night appearance drew 562,000 total viewers, down 83 percent from the disastrous Trump town hall, which has since become the bane of CNN’s existence. The Haley town hall also finished second to Fox News’ programming head-to-head in total viewership, though it did top its cable news time slot in the key ad demographic of viewers ages 25-54. While a comparison with the Trump event is not exactly apples-to-apples—considering Haley’s aired on a Sunday while the ex-president appeared on a weeknight—it does seem to underscore Haley’s relative weak standing in the GOP presidential primary. Additionally, CNN has seen a marked erosion in ratings since the Trump town hall, which resulted in viewers boycotting the cable-news pioneer. At the same time, though, Haley’s town hall did bring in higher numbers than a typical Sunday evening for CNN, which has recently seen primetime total viewership in the 300,000-400,000 range.

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Justin BaragonaSenior Media Reporter

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