Getty Bernie Sanders in Portland in March 2016.
Ever since Bernie Sanders appeared on CNN’s Town Hall last night, his supporters have been waiting to find out about the ratings and how they compared to CNN’s town halls with other candidates. Sanders’ town hall had strong views, but it didn’t beat Harris’s CNN town hall. And neither’s ratings beat Donald Trump’s from 2016 on Fox. Read on for more details.
Bernie Sanders did well, but not as well as Kamala Harris, Deadline reported. Sanders saw 1.4 million viewers for his first town hall, compared to Harris’ 1.957 million viewers. But neither Harris nor Sanders did better than Trump’s 2016 town hall on Fox News.
In late January, Kamala Harris participated in a town hall on CNN moderated by Jake Tapper, Politico reported. The event averaged 1.957 million views, which was the most views to any candidate’s town hall on CNN.
Meanwhile, Amy Klobuchar’s CNN Town Hall on President’s Day had lower ratings. About 1.139 million people watched the town hall, Deadline reported. The town hall for Klobuchar was held from 10-11:15 p.m. MSNBC’s programming came out ahead with 2.391 million views. Sanders’ town hall had more viewers than Klobuchar’s.
In demographics, about 294,000 in the 24-54 demo watched Klobuchar’s town hall. Klobuchar’s town hall had 712,000 viewers in the same demographic, Hollywood Reporter shared. It also drew 186,000 adults under 35. Sanders’ town hall, meanwhile, had 343,000 in the 25-54 demographic — higher than Klobuchar but lower than Harris.
CNN’s town hall with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz also had lower views, Forbes reported, and drew 1.102 million viewers. Sanders’ town hall had more viewers.
Deadline suggested that Sanders’ town hall taking place two hours earlier than Harris’s might have hurt his ratings somewhat.
But none of the candidates have been able to beat the views that Donald Trump received in 2016.
The highest-rated candidate-only town hall of all time goes to Donald Trump’s on Fox News, which had 2.7 million people watching in August 2016, Politico noted. Neither Harris nor Sanders has beaten that record.