Photo: Will Lanzoni/CNN
Dana Bash’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was a big ratings win for CNN Thursday evening. According to early Nielsen Fast National data, the interview brought in almost 6 million viewers and beat the cable news competition.
The interview aired on CNN as well as CNN Max and the network’s digital platforms, drawing large audiences on each. Bash questioned the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees on a variety of topics, including Harris’ past positions on issues, if she would be willing to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet, the economy, former President Donald Trump’s attacks on her racial identity, and Walz’s past comments about his military service.
According to Nielsen, the interview — tracking viewership on Thursday 9 pm to 9:45 pm ET — brought in 5.987 million viewers to CNN, more than Fox News and MSNBC combined (2.582 million and 1.307 million, respectively). Hannity, the 9 pm Fox News program, did have a guest host Thursday.
In the 25-54-year-old demographic prized by advertisers, CNN again surpassed the competition with 1.064 million viewers, more than double Fox News and MSNBC combined (302K and 150K in the demo, respectively).
CNN scored a solid online audience as well, with the total audience across the network’s owned and operated digital platforms reaching 853K live starts and peaking at 9:09 pm ET, up 691% from the prior four weeks.
As Brian Stelter noted, Thursday’s interview was CNN’s “best performance” in the 9 pm ET hour since the debate between Trump and President Joe Biden in June, which drew 9.681 million and 3.398 million in the 25-54 demo. Before that, CNN’s best 9 pm overall ratings came from Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, with 7.128 million viewers.
This article has been updated with additional information.
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