Democratic New York Sen. and presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand’s February appearance on Fox News earned ratings that dwarfed both her Monday night town hall on CNN, and her previous one on MSNBC.
490,000 total viewers tuned into the senator’s CNN town hall, of which 115,000 were in the key 25-54 age demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research. The ratings, which ranked last among the three major cable news channels for that hour, were CNN’s lowest-rated weekday hour in the 25-54 demo for all of 2019, as well as the lowest-rated weekday hour since June 2016.
Comparatively, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, who was on at the same time as the town hall, brought in 2,381,000 viewers, with 434,000 in the key demo. Ingraham beat out the town hall and MSNBC’s Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell combined. (RELATED: Fox News’ Prime-Time Ratings Double Those For Warren And Gillibrand)
DES MOINES, IA – JANUARY 19: U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) speaks to a large crowd at the state capitol for the third annual Women’s March on January 19, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Steve Pope/Getty Images)
Gillibrand appeared on Fox News for a sit-down interview with Baier on Feb. 25. The interview, which was not in primetime, unlike the town hall, garnered nearly 2.1 million in total viewers and 309,000 in the 25-54 demo. (RELATED: 2020 Democratic Hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand Can’t Even Get Her Home Delegation To Back Her)
She also had a town hall last month on MSNBC, which had 1.2 million viewers, 224,000 of which were in the key age range.
A number of Democratic presidential hopefuls have appeared on Fox News including Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sen. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who was the first potential candidate to have a town hall on the network.
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to have a town hall on FNC next week.