The first night of Jake Tapper’s stint as host of CNN Tonight, featuring a heavily promoted interview with President Joe Biden, drew an average of 854,000 viewers in the 9 PM ET hour, according to Nielsen numbers.
The show ended up in third place against news network rivals, including Fox News’ Hannity, which drew 2.6 million viewers, and MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight, drawing 1.6 million.
CNN Tonight did beat MSNBC in the 25-54 demo in the 9 PM ET time slot, drawing an average of 211,000, versus 144,000 for MSNBC.
Fox News’ Hannity averaged 323,000. Tapper is hosting CNN Tonight through the midterms, and the network has not announced plans for a permanent host after that.
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