Fox News came out on top Wednesday night, according to the network, with more viewers choosing to watch its town hall with former President Donald Trump instead of CNN’s Republican debate, which was held on the same night.
Fox said an average of over 4.4 million viewers tuned into Trump’s hour, while CNN reportedly garnered the fewest viewers for a presidential debate since 2016, with an average of 2.6 million during its two-hour broadcast. Regarding the favored 25-54 demographic, the two networks were slightly more evenly matched, but Fox was still best with 576,000 viewers versus CNN’s 515,000. Including the encore show afterward, the total viewers for Fox News included 5.8 million, with 875,000 in the 25-54 demo.
Additionally, CNN had fewer viewers for its own town hall with Trump, at 3.3 million viewers in May 2023, according to Fox. The network came under criticism for giving the former president a platform at the time.
The last time hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum moderated Trump for a town hall was in May 2020, ahead of that year’s presidential election. Some 3.8 million viewers tuned in to hear from the then-president, proving that Wednesday night’s town hall was even more popular with 16% more viewers.
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Additionally, Baeir and McCallum hosted previous town halls with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who are running against Trump for the Republican nomination. Both of those candidates drew some 2.2 million viewers on their respective broadcasts, with Haley slightly edging DeSantis out when it came to the 25-54 demographic.
Trump qualified and was invited to CNN’s debate, which was not sponsored by the Republican National Committee. Previous RNC debates required candidates to pledge loyalty to whoever the Republican nominee will be, to which Trump has seemingly not been willing to commit. While CNN did not have the same requirement, Trump declined the network’s invitation.
