MSNBC’s Kamala Harris Town Hall Bags 2020 Election Cycle’s Second Biggest Crowd

MSNBC’s town hall with Sen. Kamala Harris becomes the second most watched of this election cycle, behind only Sen. Bernie Sanders on Fox News Channel, in April.

Delivering 2.209 million total viewers including 307K in the 25-54 “news demo,”  Tuesday’s Lawrence O’Donnell-moderated town hall, bests all 21 of CNN’s town halls to date in total viewers.

Harris also headlined CNN’s most watch town hall to date, which was telecast even earlier in the election cycle – January – and when Harris was less known than she is today. That one clocked under 2 million viewers – but but outperformed Tuesday night’s MSNBC town hall in the news demo by a wide margin, logging 712K viewers aged 25-54.

At 10 PM Tuesday, FNC’s Ingraham Angle (2.435M, 374K) won the hour, while Harris’s MSNBC town hall outlapped CNN Tonight (919K, 261K).

Following MSNBC’s town hall, MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams (1.560M, 214K) clocked the largest crowd among cable news networks at 11 PM ET. In Williams’ hour, CNN averaged 646K viewers and 196K in the demo. FNC  (1.325M, 240K) topped in the demo.

Back in April, Bernie Sanders’ FNC town hall became the most watched of the 2020 race to date, clocking nearly 2.6 million viewers from 6:30-7:30 PM ET on a Monday, including 489,000 in the news demographic.

In January, Harris’s first town hall appearance as White House hopeful drew 1.95 million viewers – the biggest crowd for a single-candidate town hall in the CNN’s history.That Harris appearance, a week after she announced she’ll run for president in the 2020 Democratic primary, also carried CNN to the top spot in the key news demo, averaging 712,000 viewers in the age bracket, outstripping MSNBC (404,000) and FNC (395,000).

Meanwhile, Fox News said Thursday that former HUD Secretary Julián Castro is the latest Dem White House hopeful to sign on for a town hall on the conservative news outlet. Moderated by FNC hosts Bret Baier and Martha McCallum, that event is set for Thursday, June 13, in Phoenix. Castro’s town hall will be the sixth for a Democrat on Fox News this election cycle. Kristen Gillibrand has her FNC closeup Saturday from Dubuque, IA.