Trump boasts his coronavirus briefings are as popular as 'The Bachelor', gets slammed
At a time when the United States has become the country with the most number of positive coronavirus cases in the world, President Donald Trump took to Twitter on March 29 to boast about the kind of rating that his daily press briefings were drawing by comparing it with 'The Bachelor' — a popular reality show — and 'Monday Night Football' — a sports program.
This comes at a time when his administration has been facing severe criticism over the handling of the global pandemic.
“President Trump is a ratings hit. Since reviving the daily White House briefing Mr Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of 'The Bachelor,’" Trump wrote in a series of tweets on March 29. "Numbers are continuing to rise. On Monday, nearly 12.2 million people watched Mr Trump’s briefing on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, according to Nielsen — ‘Monday Night Football’ numbers. Millions more are watching on ABC, CBS, NBC, and online streaming sites, and the audience is expanding."
He quoted a New York Times article on the high levels of viewership the White House received for the COVID-19 press briefings and whined about the "lamestream media".
"On Monday, Fox News alone attracted 6.2 million viewers for the president’s briefing — an astounding number for a 6 pm cable broadcast, more akin to the viewership for a popular prime-time sitcom. The CBS News poll said 13 percent of Republicans trusted the news media for information about the virus," he added.
From actors to TV producers to journalists, none of them could believe that the POTUS was patting his own back for having secured extraordinary ratings for his speeches even as the country grappled with the pandemic with the number of positive cases increasing to more than a lakh in the US.
Elan Gale, a producer on 'The Bachelor,' said that if Trump's tweets were performed on the comedy show, SNL, as a sketch, heads would turn. “Seriously if Alec Baldwin recited this word for word on Saturday Night Live, there would be lots of people saying he jumped the shark,” Gale tweeted.
Actress Alyssa Milano wrote on Twitter, "He’s tweeting about his ratings in the middle of a pandemic. This is the most hurtful President of our time. I don’t understand how anyone can support him. If you do, please open your eyes and heart to those who are suffering *because* of him. Request a mail-in ballot now."
CNN anchor Jake Tapper said, "Dr Fauci told me today that the coronavirus could kill anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, and infect millions more. Americans. The president is tweeting about TV ratings for press conferences."
Singer John Legend tweeted, "Literally the sh**tiest possible person to be in charge right now."
Radio show host David Pakman tweeted, "He's comparing his press briefings about coronavirus to The Bachelor. People aren't watching for entertainment, they're watching more and more because people are getting sick and dying, and he thinks it's a sign of his popularity."
New York Times best-selling author Rick Wilson quipped, "This is what you are to him, Americans. An audience. Not his constituents. Not the people who hired him. Not even humans. You're boxes in a spreadsheet of his Neilsen ratings."
Historian Kevin M. Kruse wrote, "People stop to look at really bad highway accidents too."