CNN's Harry Enten showed evidence that President Donald Trump's attacks on Jimmy Kimmel may have backfired.
The late night talk show host was suspended last week after the administration threatened to pull broadcast licenses for ABC affiliates that aired his program, and the president threatened to sue the network after it reinstated Kimmel following widespread public outcry.
"Absolutely huge," Enten began. "What are wetalking about here? Well, let'stake a look at YouTube views, 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' video views.The six-month median, the medianvideo only gets 240,000. Lookhow many views Tuesday night'smonologue already has 6.7million. That's over 25 times aslarge as the median Jimmy Kimmel video normally gets, andI was looking, it is by far thelargest video in at least sixmonths."
"So if Donald Trump'sidea was to give Jimmy Kimmelmore press and more viewership,he absolutely did," Enten added. "So, of course,I don't think that is what Donald Trump intended to do."
Enten found additional data that showed how Trump's attacks on the late-night comedian had only generated interest in his program.
"So wegot this 6.7 million, I willnote that that number is upalready about 700,000 from thelast time I checked, which wasabout an hour ago," Enten said. "But take alook here: Record-high Googlesearches last night for 'whattime is Jimmy Kimmel on?' Youwouldn't have to check what time Jimmy Kimmel was on if you werea regular viewer. The reasonthat people were checkingwhether what time Jimmy Kimmelwas on, because he was pulling,potentially pulling in a lot ofviewers who normally didn'twatch and get this, it was upover 10,000 percent – my goodnessgracious. This, of course, datesall the way back since 2004, basically, since Jimmy Kimmelwas first on the air."
"So no, itwas not just on YouTube," Enten added, "therewas a ton of interest, whatwe're talking about, nationwide,worldwide, in terms of what timewas Jimmy Kimmel on, because Idon't normally watch him, butmaybe I want to take a ganderbecause maybe I'm interested tohear what he has to say."