President Trump’s daily White House Coronavirus briefings are turning into a ratings bonanza [via The New York Times], citing Nielsen numbers.
If you’ve been watching Trump’s White House Task Force briefings you would know how entertaining they are to watch. It’s an art form, a high-wire act of Covid-19 updates mixed in with deadpan comedy and babbling absurdity. It really is fascinating counter-programming to the usual doom and gloom coverage we are getting of the Coronavirus.
Monday’s briefing drew 12.2 million people on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, those are the type of numbers that shows like “Monday Night Football and season finales for “The Bachelor” usually receive. Fox News benefited the most from the briefings, with the conservative cable news channel attracting 6.2 million viewers on Monday.
Trump initially held the COVID-19 briefings from the Oval Office, but once he permanently moved them inside the White House on March 14 viewership started to peak. Vice President Mike Pence, who heads up the White House task force, once began the briefings, but the president has now taken charge of making announcements at the outset and fielding questions from reporters.
Trump’s scheduled briefing for Thursday is set to take place around 5 p.m.