Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have reason to celebrate.
According to early numbers from Nielsen, more viewers tuned in Tuesday night to watch Pelosi and Schumer’s rebuttal than President Donald Trump’s first Oval Office address to the nation.
The quarter hour from 9 to 9:15 p.m. ET that featured Trump’s speech about immigration and border security scored a combined 28.1 household rating in metered markets on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CNN, Fox News, and NBC.
Schumer and Pelosi’s response on behalf of Democrats aired in the following 15 minutes, averaging 29.3 across the aforementioned networks.
Additionally, the preliminary numbers show that the Democratic rebuttal topped Trump by 26 percent on CNN and 15 percent on MSNBC, according to Deadline.
Before the ratings came out, the president took to Twitter to thank his supporters.
“Thank you for soooo many nice comments regarding my Oval Office speech,” he wrote. “A very interesting experience!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1082857997032919040
By Wednesday afternoon, however, Trump’s mood had soured. Upset following a meeting with Pelosi and Schumer about the ongoing government shutdown and his proposed border wall, he tweeted: “Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time.”
He continued: “I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1083099784012091396
Detailed ratings for both Trump’s address and the Schumer-Pelosi rebuttal will be available by the end of Wednesday.
