It was a huge night for broadcast, with above-average telecasts on all of the big four networks and even a strong result for The CW.
However, it was ABC that saw a massive victory with their town hall with former Vice President and Democratic nominee for President, Joe Biden. The event was a huge ratings winner for ABC, and seeing as it was broadcast live coast-to-coast, it's very likely to adjust up in the finals. For now, though, its 2.6 is still one of the highest ratings of the 2020-21 season so far, and its 12.2 million viewers is also incredibly massive. The preliminary rating also included ratings for a half-hour of analysis post-town hall, meaning that the ratings for the actual town hall are even higher than the reported 2.6. Behind it, ABC aired a repeat of Emergency Call. Despite being a repeat, the massive lead-in helped the broadcast tie a series high.
NBC had a mixed night. They had an extremely solid result for their recently-announced (and controversial) town hall with President Donald Trump. The Savannah Guthrie-hosted event drew a 1.7, nearly a full ratings point behind Biden's town hall, and 10.4 million viewers, about two million below Biden's. However, this town hall aired on MSNBC as well, meaning its total ratings haul is likely much closer to Biden's 2.6 than the initial report states. After that, NBC fell off the rails with a 0.5/0.2 for Connecting, with the 9 PM episode seemingly only receiving views from people who couldn't turn off the TV fast enough. Those viewers somehow found their way back in the 10pm hour as a repeat of 'Dateline' (0.4) managed to improve from the meager sitcom.
CBS's Big Brother' (0.9) lost a tenth from last week while 'Star Trek: Discovery' (0.3) gained one. Repeats of 'Young Sheldon' (0.3) and 'The Neighborhood' (0.3) separated the two. Fox had a solid-ish showing from game 4 of NLCS (0.7) and the CW lost a tenth with 'Supernatural' (0.3) but held even with 'The Outpost' (0.1).
Finals Update: The Vice President and the People (+0.4), the repeat of Emergency Call (+0.1), Big Brother (+0.1), MLB: Dodgers v. Braves (+0.3) and the Trump Town Hall (+0.2) adjusted up. The repeat of Dateline (-0.1) adjusted down.
