CNN's live town hall event with former President Donald Trump proved to be a ratings boon for the network, according to early ratings data.
The controversial event brought in 3.1 million total viewers, per early Nielsen ratings.
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In comparison, the channel's 8 p.m. hour on Tuesday, occupied by Anderson Cooper 360, only saw 707,000 viewers.
Trump's town hall on the network took place on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. An audience of Republican and independent voters who plan to participate in the Republican primary election took turns asking the former president questions.
CNN's event was ranked the No. 1 program on cable news for both total viewers and viewers in the 25-54 demographic.
The former president drew in 703,000 viewers from the 25-54 age demographic targeted by advertisers. Cooper only brought in 165,000 the night before.
CNN's ratings bump then lasted throughout the night, providing elevated ratings in the 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. hours as well.
The network retained 2.3 million viewers for the 9 p.m. hour and held on to 1.2 million in the 10 p.m. hour as CNN hosts and contributors discussed the event. On Tuesday, these slots garnered 540,000 viewers and 520,000 viewers, respectively.
The event performed better than all other single candidate town halls on the channel since 2016 in total viewers, with the notable exception of President Joe Biden's 2020 town hall event, which received 3.465 million viewers.
However, CNN has faced criticism for hosting Trump on the channel at all.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for example, said that "CNN should be ashamed of themselves" for hosting the event. MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle further announced that she wouldn't be covering the event. "Next on @11thHour-We are not going to analyze the former presidemt repeating lies & smears. We've seen it all before. The question tonight is are how are news organizations going to cover Trump if he wins the nomination," she tweeted.
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Nonetheless, CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht reportedly defended the decision on a call Thursday morning with employees.
“I absolutely, unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night,” he said.