AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Wednesday night’s Fox News town hall with former President Donald Trump crushed the ratings of the final Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses, hosted by CNN and featuring former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Republican frontrunner, who has skipped all primary debates with his Republican opponents this election cycle, joined Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum for a one-hour live town hall event.
Meanwhile, Haley and DeSantis, who are neck-and-neck in polling for second place in Iowa’s upcoming caucus, faced off for a two-hour debate in Des Moines, Iowa that aired on CNN.
Both events kicked off at the same time, 9 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, although the CNN debate extended for an additional hour. According to early data from Nielsen Media Research, during the hour they overlapped, the Fox News town hall with Trump averaged a total of 4.3 million viewers and 553,000 in the 25-54 age demographic.
Meanwhile, CNN’s debate during the same hour gathered 2.58 million viewers and 479,000 in the 25-54 demographic. Fox’s event topped CNN by a double-digit percentage with 68% more total viewers in the same time slot.
The latest numbers for Fox show an increase in viewership from the network’s recorded town hall between Trump and host Sean Hannity last month, which averaged 3.2 million total viewers, including 375,000 in the 25-54 age demographic.
As Haley and DeSantis squared off on the debate stage last night in Des Moines, Trump was met with cheers of “USA” and supporters yelling “love you” at the town hall. The former president reportedly stayed after the event conclusion to sign autographs, according to the Associated Press.
The ratings win for Fox News is the consequence of a savvy if not cold-blooded outmaneuvering of its cable news rival. A source told Mediaite that Fox put together its three January town hall events in less than three weeks, including the Trump event on Wednesday night, which proved to be an effective piece of counter-programming against CNN’s first Republican primary debate.
