Donald Trump Boasts About 'Largest Saturday Night' Fox News Ratings for Tulsa Rally Despite Low Turnout

President Donald Trump's Tulsa rally may have had an unfavorably low turnout, but that isn’t [...]

President Donald Trump's Tulsa rally may have had an unfavorably low turnout, but that isn't stopping the president from boasting about the TV ratings. As reports swirled regarding the low number of just 6,200 attendees at the Saturday event, Trump took to Twitter to turn the conversation around, commending himself for the rally drawing record ratings on Fox News. In a tweet, the president called the numbers a "rather major feat," while also drawing plenty of laughs for misspelling "history" as "history."

According to Fox News, the Saturday rally had 7.7 million people tuning into the network to watch from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET, making it the most-watched Saturday in the network's history during that time period. The rally also gave the network its largest Saturday night primetime audience ever from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. For comparison, ESPN's coverage of the NFL Draft's opening night averaged 8 million, while MSNBC's most-watched Democratic primary debate averaged 7.7 million and CNN's most-watched weekday Democratic primary debate averaged 7.4 million.

The president's campaign, however, has stated that the viewership data for the rally is actually even higher than what is being reported, crediting millions of people who watched via live stream. In a statement, Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh said that the rally "attracted over 4 million unique viewers across all of the campaign's digital media channels." Meanwhile, the "live-streamed pre-rally shows drew an audience of more than 2.5 million unique viewers by themselves."

While those numbers are great and set some records, the same cannot be said for in-person attendees. Although the Saturday event had been expected to draw thousands, with millions having registered their interest and the Trump campaign even setting up an overflow area, only 6,200 of the BOK Center's 19,000 seats were filled. Varying reports have been given for that low attendance, with many on social media applauding TikTok teens and K-pop stans for registering their interest in the event in the thousands, which inflated expectations. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, however, has blamed the low attendance on the media, stating "a week's worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of Covid and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally."

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