Fox town hall with Trump draws more TV viewers than debate between Haley and DeSantis
NEW YORK (AP) — Television viewers were more interested in watching a Donald Trump town hall than the first head-to-head debate between Republican challengers Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
The live town hall, which aired on Fox News Channel in prime time on Wednesday, was watched by 4.3 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. The CNN debate, which aired live at the same time, was seen by just under 2.6 million, per Nielsen.
<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«MORE NEWS» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> MORE NEWS </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Trump skips much of the final week before Iowa’s caucuses to go to court voluntarily instead </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Donald Trump enjoys a relaxed Fox News town hall while top Republican rivals have fiery debate </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> DeSantis and Haley jockey for second without Trump and other takeaways from Iowa GOP debate<use xlink:href="#play-icon" xmlns:xlink=«http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink»> </bsp-custom-headline> </bsp-list-loadmore>Fox said the Trump campaign demanded that the town hall go head-to-head on TV against CNN’s debate at 9 p.m. Eastern, as a condition to the former president’s appearance. Trump has not participated in any of the organized debates of GOP 2024 presidential candidates.
Both events took place in Des Moines, Iowa, in advance of Monday’s Iowa presidential caucuses.
Fox said Trump’s town hall got an additional 1.4 million viewers when reruns were aired at midnight Eastern time and in the middle of the night.
Since Fox News