Despite portions of the interview making major news, ABC's special with the president came in third in its timeslot Sunday night. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo Media Trump interview on ABC was a ratings bust

President Donald Trump’s much-teased interview with ABC was not the ratings bonanza the numbers-obsessed president likely would have wanted.

The hourlong special with ABC chief anchor George Stephanopoulos came in third in its timeslot Sunday night, notching 3.91 million viewers according to ratings aggregator TV by the Numbers.


Stephanopoulos spent 30 hours with the president over the course of two days last week, and the sitdown even got a presidential promotion on Trump’s Twitter feed Saturday along with a promise that he would do more network interviews throughout his reelection bid.

But despite portions of the interview — which had been teased out over the course of several days — making major news, the full special was not enough to draw viewers away from the finale of the U.S. Open on Fox, which pulled in 7.29 million viewers over three hours, or CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which netted 4.67 million viewers in its second hour.

The Trump special did, however, top "60 Minutes" in both key target demographics, earning a rating of 0.6 to CBS' 0.4 among adults 18-49, and a rating of 0.9 to CBS' 0.6 among adults 25-54.

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The interview’s ratings were a sharp drop from Celebrity Family Feud, which premiered in the time slot last week, and pulled in 6.1 million viewers. Trump’s interview also did not build much on the audience of its lead-in, a rerun of America’s Funniest Home Videos that brought in 3.5 million viewers.

The president is famously obsessed with ratings, always quick to criticize the ratings of news networks and personalities who in his view cover his administration unfairly, and to cheer ratings for his favorite cable channel, Fox News, or for interviews featuring himself or his family.