After a bit of a lull, the TV news town halls have picked up again this week.
ABC News announced it will hold two live town halls in the final days before the New York Primary: with Hillary Clinton on Friday and with Ted Cruz on Monday. Both town halls will air for most of the second hour of “Good Morning America,” moderated by George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts with questions from voters in the audience and across the country.
Trump will also take part in a Today show town hall Thursday, April 21. Trump will answer questions from the crowd just as Bernie Sanders did in a Today show town hall last week.
And this week, CNN is getting the families into the mix. Last night’s town hall with Donald Trump and his family on was the most-watched cable news show at 9 p.m. in both viewers and the A25-54 demo. That helped give CNN a prime time win in the demo, while Fox News was No. 1 in viewers. Tonight the Cruz Family Town Hall airs on CNN at 9 p.m.
Last month, CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker said he himself has courted the campaigns. “At the debate down in Miami, I spoke to Cruz’s four top aides, and offered them numerous options to come on for one-hour interviews, phone calls, town halls, etc,” Zucker said. He made the comments in response to accusations the networks were giving disproportionate airtime to Donald Trump.