It was a battle of candidate town halls on cable news again last night with three hours of GOP candidates on CNN, and two hours with the two Democratic candidates on MSNBC.
CNN’s Town Hall in Columbia, S.C., got underway around 8:40 p.m. with Anderson Cooper hosting John Kasich followed by Jeb Bush and then Donald Trump. It wrapped up just after 11 p.m. MSNBC’s prime time began with Rachel Maddow‘s interview with Vice President Joe Biden, followed by the 2-hour Town Hall in Las Vegas with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton moderated by Chuck Todd and Jose Díaz-Balart. Fox News stuck with its prime time programming, with Sean Hannity getting interviews with both Kasich and Trump.
This was the culmination of two days of town halls for CNN. The network also took Wednesday when Cooper hosted candidates Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Dr. Ben Carson. According to Nielsen Fast Nationals:
- 8 p.m.-11 p.m. ET | Total Viewers / A25-54 Demo
CNN – 2,878,908 / 780,000
Fox News – 2,228,661 / 424,000
MSNBC – 1,464,369 / 314,000