Bernie Sanders just logged the most-watched cable news town hall of the election season with his Monday appearance on Fox News.
The Sanders town hall, moderated by the network’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, drew 2.554 million viewers, with 489,000 of them between the ages of 25 and 54. That overall audience was the largest tally of 2019 for these types of events. In the key demo, Sanders’ turn finished third.
Nancy Pelosi, the first town hall of 2019, was second overall with 2.517 million total viewers. That one was on MSNBC. It was also in primetime (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), which generally has better viewing levels than Sanders’ 6:30-7:30 p.m. hour did.
Kamala Harris’ CNN town hall back on Jan. 28 currently rules the demo, with 708,000 viewers 25-54. Sanders’ first turn was on CNN in late February, when the Democrat fared better in the demo (with 515,000 viewers 25-54) than he did last night.
Below are the 2019 town hall rankings, per Nielsen.
One of those viewers was Donald Trump, who targeted “Crazy Bernie” and “smiley and nice” Bret Baier in a critical early-morning tweet on Tuesday, calling the event “weird to watch.”
In a tweet of his own, Baier shot back, saying the president was welcome to come on for an interview of his own. “Thanks for watching Mr. President – we’d love to have you on a town hall soon — or even an interview on @SpecialReport -it’s been awhile. We cover all sides,” he said.