Three million viewers watched the president-elect Donald Trump take your first post-election interview with a traditional non-Fox News outlet this weekend. According to Nielsen Media Research, Trump’s appearance on NBC News’ Meet the Press with Kristen Welker attracted 2,914 total viewers and 569,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demo on the Sunday morning program. A recording of the interview was viewed an additional 2.2 million times on YouTube.
Welker’s conversation with Trump propelled Meet the Press ahead of its Sunday rivals, including CBS News’ Face the Nation – the traditional No. 1 – and ABC News’ This Week with Georges Stephanopoulos. This is also the show’s largest total audience since 2023:the year Welker took over the program— and its largest number of protests since 2022. And Trump’s sometimes impassioned comments on topics like tariffs and immigrant deportations have provided reporters with plenty of fodder at the start of the week’s news cycle.
Although the president-elect’s interview propelled MTP to high ratings, it still lags behind several of Trump’s pre-election appearances on Fox News, his media outlet of choice for much of the year. These included a town hall on September 4 with Sean Hannity which attracted 4.42 million viewers, a Sept. 19 pit stop on Gutfeld! which attracted 4.9 million viewersand a town hall on October 18 with Harris Faulkner which attracted 3.1 million viewers. It should be noted that these FNC appearances took place during the week and aired in the late morning or evening hours.
Of course, the numbers for Fox and NBC are drops in the ocean compared to the millions of viewers who watched Trump’s interviews with emerging media superstars like Joe Rogan And Theo Von. Since posting to YouTube on October 25, Trump’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience has reached nearly 53 million views, while his August 20 meeting with Von just surpassed 15.5 million views on the platform.
During the campaign, the Trump team made a point of continuing interviews with independent journalists and influencers on cable and broadcast networks. This approach was attributed to his stronger-than-expected performance. among young male voters in particular. And the new White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently suggested that “different voices” » could be heard in the briefing room next January.
“We will certainly look at options on how to respect White House tradition while ensuring that the press briefing room reflects the media habits of the American people today,” Leavitt said. spotted during an appearance at Hannity last month.
Given the renewed focus on the role digital platforms will play in the future of information, the 2.2 million viewers who watched Trump’s MTP appearance on YouTube are arguably a more meaningful statistic than the linear audience of the show. It also reflects NBC News’ broader digital strategy, which had previously resulted in significant victories on election night on platforms like TikTok.
“There was a time when X was Twitter and Facebook was king. » Catherine Kimexecutive vice president of editorial at NBC News, recently spoke to TVNewser about how the network is navigating the increasingly important world of social media. “We’ve become accustomed to this idea that, in digital, what may be useful one day may not be useful the next in terms of creating and reaching audiences. It’s just the nature of the beast.
