CNN's exclusive town hall with President Joe Biden on Wednesday night was a ratings flop, and fell 83 percent behind Fox News's regular programming, and also trailed behind MSNBC.
The President was speaking at a half-empty town hall in Cincinnati, with photos from journalists behind the cameras showing row upon row of unfilled seats.
And it seems that TV viewers were equally unwilling to watch the president.
Between 8pm and 9.30pm, CNN yielded just 1.46million viewers, compared to Fox's 2.7million and MSNBC's 1.63million, according to data from the Nielson Media Research.
Biden's town hall with Don Lemon in Cincinnati turned a lot of heads as the president struggled to answer certain questions in complete sentences and falsely stated that vaccinated Americans can't be diagnosed with Covid-19.
CNN saw its viewership plummet during Wednesday night's town hall with President Joe Biden
Photos from journalists behind the cameras showed row upon row of unfilled seats
CNN also fell behind during primetime hours, between 8pm and 11pm, and only saw 1.28million as compared to Fox's 2.36million and MSNBC's 1.63million. The stats were first released by Fox News.
Fox News programming included 'Tucker Carlson Tonight,' followed by 'Hannity,' which offered a town hall featuring Florida Republicans Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Marco Rubio, Representative Maria Elvira Salazar and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. Among other topics, they discussed the ongoing protests for freedom in Cuba.
Meanwhile, MSNBC was showing 'All In With Chris Hayes,' followed by 'The Rachel Maddow Show.'
CNN's previous town hall with the president, in February, drew 3.5 million viewers, about 58 percent more than on Wednesday night, according to the New York Post.
Fox News programming included 'Tucker Carlson Tonight,' (pictured) followed by 'Hannity'
Meanwhile, MSNBC was showing 'All In With Chris Hayes,' (pictured) followed by 'The Rachel Maddow Show'
During Wednesday's town hall, Biden struggled at some points to complete statements coherently as he lost his train of thought on multiple occasions.
At one point, when talking about getting vaccinations approved for children under the age of 12, the president said: 'That's underway, just like the other question that's illogical. And I've heard you speak about it because you always – I'm not being solicitous – but you're always straight up about what you're doing.'
'And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where you uh, um, are – why can't the, the, the experts say we know that this virus is, in fact, uh, um, uh, it's going to be – or, excuse me, we, we, we know why all the drugs approved are not temporarily approved by permanently approved. That's underway too. I expect that to occur quickly,' Biden continued as he fumbled over his words.
'You mean for the FDA,' Lemon clarified.
Biden replied: 'For the FDA'
Here, the president got off track on his answer about getting emergency use authorization for vaccines in children under 12 years of age.
He went on to discuss that the Food and Drug Administration is working on getting full authorization for the use of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines – the three administered in the U.S.
Currently all three shots are only under emergency use authorization, which is a special provision for vaccinations and medicines to be given the go ahead for use in the U.S. before they gain full FDA approval.
He also overinflated the efficiency of vaccines, especially against the Delta variant, and made false claims that that inoculated Americans can't contract the virus.
'We're not in the position where we think that any virus, including the Delta virus, which is much more transmissible and more deadly in terms of unvaccinated people, the – the various shots that people are getting now cover that,' Biden said during a CNN town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio on Wednesday.
'You're OK,' he assured. 'You're not going to – you're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.'
President Joe Biden (left) stumbled through Wednesday night's CNN town hall with Don Lemon (right) in Cincinnati when he issued a series of gaffes, lost thoughts and false statements
This statement is false considering vaccinated Americans have still contracted or have been hospitalized with the virus and breakthrough cases are increasing with the rapid spread of the Delta variant.
'If you're vaccinated, you're not going to be hospitalized, you're not going to be in the IC unit, and you're not going to die,' the president told host Don Lemon on stage at Mount St. Joseph University.
'So it's gigantically important that . . . we all act like Americans who care about our fellow Americans,' he added.
When speaking about national security, Biden also lost his words when declaring his qualifications to speak on the matter.
'And I'll say one last thing: You're going to – I've had a lot of
