ABC News Saw Significant Ratings Bounce With Joe Biden Interview And Easily Won Timeslot, Early Numbers Show

George Stephanopoulos’ interview with President Joe Biden easily won its timeslot on Friday, with early fast affiliate numbers showing 8.1 million viewers.

That figure is greater than NBC, CBS and Fox combined, according to Nielsen. The network said that it was the most-watched ABC News program in primetime since Stephanopoulos’ interview with James Comey in April, 2018, the exception being election night and debate coverage.

The interview, One on One with President Biden, was presented as a special edition of This Week. The president said that his poor debate performance was due to exhaustion and that he had a cold, while he insisted that he would not step aside. Stephanopoulos also pressed him on whether he would take an independent cognitive test, but Biden would not commit to it and instead said that he was tested every day by the duties of the office.

The audience for the interview is far smaller than the debate, which drew 51.3 million viewers on CNN and across networks the simulcast the event. The Stephanopoulos interview was arranged amid calls from donors and other supporters that the president had to do more unscripted interviews and press conferences to show that he was fit for the campaign and for another term.