Media

Castro’s Fox News Town Hall Nearly Doubles His CNN Town Hall

Mike Brest Reporter
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Former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro’s Thursday night presidential town hall on Fox News had nearly twice as many viewers as his previous town hall on CNN.

Castro’s town hall on Fox News averaged 1,131,000 viewers with 194,000 in the key 25-54 age demographic, according to early Nielsen Media Research. He addressed issues such as illegal immigration and a Hatch Act violation from his time as the head of HUD in 2016.

His first town hall took place on CNN April 11. That event accumulated 654,000 viewers with an audience of 174,000 people in the key demographic.

Castro is one of a multitude of presidential candidates to host town halls on multiple networks. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have had town halls on CNN and Fox News.

Sanders’ Fox News town hall currently stands as the most-watched town hall of this election cycle with 2.6 million viewers. Each of his two CNN town halls failed to eclipse 1.5 million viewers. Similarly, Klobuchar’s most-watch town hall occurred on Fox News, while having participated in two on CNN. (RELATED: MSNBC And Fox News’ Normal Nightly Lineup Beat CNN’S Five Town Halls)

Buttigieg, who has appeared in four town halls, had the largest audience during his MSNBC event with 1.6 million viewers. His town hall on Fox News was sandwiched between his two CNN town halls, but it occurred on a Sunday, so that played a role in the smaller audience.

Gillibrand experienced a similar situation with her MSNBC town hall beating her event on Fox News, which took place on a Sunday. But, it did beat her town hall on CNN.

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