‘Celebrity Family Feud’ got higher ratings than Trump’s ABC interview

An hourlong interview with President Donald Trump that aired on ABC Sunday evening did not produce the high ratings that many expected, instead losing to other networks’ programming and underperforming what many had predicted would have been  a ratings blow out.

In interviews conducted by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, which occurred over the course of 30 hours in two consecutive days at the White House, the president made headlines that drew a lot of attention online as the network teased the interview ahead of its Sunday broadcast.

But in spite of those huge headlines, the interview itself did not result in huge ratings points for Trump or the network. Not even the president’s own tweets on Saturday brought about huge numbers, Politico reported Monday.

The Trump interview, which had 3.91 million viewers, competed against programs like Celebrity Family Feud, which won over 6.1 million viewers. The U.S. Open also drew in more viewers, with 7.29 watching the golfing contest over the course of three hours.

CBS’ 60 Minutes saw 4.67 million viewers in its second hour of programming, usually a time in which viewership drops off. And NBC’s America’s Got Talent nearly matched the president’s interview, bringing in 3.19 million viewers, according to TV by the Numbers, a television ratings ranker.

Trump’s been obsessed with garnering positive television ratings’ numbers since the start of his presidency, and has disparaged those he has said were performing poorly. In the first 10 months of his tenure, for example, he cited TV ratings at least 24 documented times, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Trump frequently attacks those he views as adversarial as getting negative ratings, although he’s not always accurate about it. In June 2017, he taunted CNN about having low ratings. CNN responded by pointing out that Trump was talking about a period of time that was their “most watched second quarter” in the history of the network.

Featured image via screen grab/ABC News

Chris Walker

Chris Walker is a freelance news and opinion writer based out of Madison, Wisconsin. With more than 15 years of experience, Chris has published work that spans three separate presidencies. In his free time, Chris likes to pretend he can play guitar.