Dont Tell Donald Trump: Stormy Daniels Lands 60 Minutes Its Best Ratings in 10 Years
Update (Mar. 26, 4:45 p.m.): The final numbers are in. According to CBS, the Stormy Daniels intervie..
Update (Mar. 26, 4:45 p.m.): The final numbers are in. According to CBS, the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes notched 22 million viewers with final adjustments. It is the most-watched 60 Minutes episode in a decade, according to Billboard, breezing past the viewership numbers of Donald Trumps interview in 2016, which landed around 20 million viewers.
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Heres another Stormy Daniels story that Donald Trump isnt going to be happy about. According to Deadline, the adult-film stars 60 Minutes interview yielded the programs best ratings since 2008. When was the last time 60 Minutes yielded such a strong viewership? Ah, so glad you asked—it was in 2008, when correspondent Steve Kroft interviewed Barack and Michelle Obama after the November election. About 24.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the young president-elect and the future First Lady discuss the historic win. Things sure have changed in 10 years.
Daniels had a sit-down with Anderson Cooper to discuss her alleged 2006 affair with the president, as well as the purported threats made against her after she went public with her story. The interview was full of lurid claims; Daniels said she spanked Trump with a magazine, that he compared her to his daughter Ivanka Trump, and that she was not sexually attracted to him. (At the time, Daniels was 27 and Trump was 60.) During the alleged affair, the future president was also married to his third wife, current First Lady Melania Trump, who had recently given birth to son Barron Trump. Daniels said she asked about the relationship, but Trump “brushed it aside,” and answered, “Oh yeah, yeah, you know, dont worry about that . . . we have separate rooms and stuff.”
Melanias director of communications, Stephanie Grisham, responded to the Daniels interview on Twitter. “While I know the media is enjoying speculation & salacious gossip, Id like to remind people theres a minor child whos name should be kept out of news stories when at all possible,” she wrote, referring to Donald and Melanias 12-year-old son.
While Trump has built a reputation on lashing out at his various haters on Twitter, he has been uncharacteristically restrained regarding the Stormy Daniels scenario (though he has denied the affair). On Monday, he clumsily sub-tweeted the porn star: “So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!”
“Never been more voluminous.” Thats definitely a thing people say regarding the news. Let that phrase rattle around your brain for a minute, then prepare yourself for another sub-tweet when Trump, who is famously obsessed with TV ratings, realizes that the Daniels interview made 60 Minutes history.
The interview was also the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter in the U.S. on Sunday—another tidbit that probably made Trump furious. Considering his restraint thus far, Trump has likely been advised to keep mum on the Daniels story, which means we wont see her name pop up on his page any time soon. Well, unless this is another “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” situation—and unless he simply cant help himself when official ratings for the interview are released.
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