New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s town hall on Fox News Sunday evening doubled each of the three town halls CNN hosted concurrently. CNN’s town halls were with Democratic Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Tim Ryan of Ohio, and Eric Swalwell of California.
Gillibrand’s event had 834,000 viewers with 92,000 in the key 25-45 age demographic, according to early Nielsen Media Research. Comparatively, neither Ryan or Moulton managed to reach 400,000 viewers with Swalwell barely eclipsing that benchmark with an audience of 401,000 people. (RELATED: Fox News Reportedly Turned Down Swalwell Town Hall Request)
The only town halls this election cycle to have fewer viewers than Ryan’s or Moulton’s were the weekend town halls for entrepreneur Andrew Yang and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson.
2020 Democratic presidential candidates are seen in a combination of 21 file photos (L-R top row): U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Michael Bennet. (L-R middle row): Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, U.S. Representatives Tulsi Gabbard, John Delaney, Eric Swalwell, Tim Ryan, Seth Moulton, and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro. (L-R bottom row): Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Former Gov. John Hickenlooper, Gov. Jay Inslee, Andrew Yang, Marianne Williamson, Mayor Wayne Messam, and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. REUTERS/Files
Despite being the other town halls on Sunday night, Gillibrand, who has still not yet reached the 65,000 donor requirement to qualify for the first presidential debate, had a smaller audience that each of the previous town halls on Fox News with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg all beat her. (RELATED: MSNBC And Fox News’ Normal Nightly Lineup Beat CNN’S Five Town Halls)
In one particularly contentious moment during Gillibrand’s town hall, she accused Fox News of pushing a false narrative about abortion coverage and infanticide. Chris Wallace, the moderator, defended his network.
This was her third town hall since announcing her candidacy and has had one on each of the three cable networks. Her town hall on CNN in April had slightly over half a million viewers while her MSNBC event had an audience of 1.2 million people.