• by Wayne Friedman , October 16, 2020

Joe Biden's Town Hall event on ABC posted 8% more TV viewers than three NBCUniversal networks' airing of a Donald Trump Town Hall event in a head-to-head programming battle on Thursday -- just over two weeks before the Presidential election.

Biden’s event pulled in a Nielsen-measured 14.1 million viewers, while the trio of NBCUniversal networks -- NBC Television Network, MSNBC, and CNBC -- came in at a collective 13.01 million.

NBC had 10.6 million viewers, while MSNBC had 1.74 million and CNBC came in at about 671,000.

The unusual head-to-head 60-minute-long Town Hall events, both of which aired at 8 p.m. ET, were a replacement for a second Presidential debate that was cancelled due to President Trump’s positive COVID-19 test followed by his hospitalization.

The format for Town Hall events typically features a moderator who asks questions, with the majority of the inquiries coming from potential voters.

For ABC’s event, “The Vice President and the People -- A Special Edition of 20/20,” top paid advertisers, according to iSpot, were Nature’s Bounty, Gold Bond, Maybelline, Carfax, Rachael Ray Nutrish, Garnier, T-Mobile, and AT&T Wireless, as well as pharmaceutical brands Rybelsus, Apoquel, and Vraylar.

NBC's "Decision 2020: Trump Town Hall" paid-advertisers came from five marketers: T-Mobile, Norton 360, NordicTrack, SimpliSafe, and Universal Pictures.