The near-daily onslaught of presidential candidates sitting down for town halls and other cable news interviews has thus far primarily benefited Fox News Channel and CNN — but MSNBC on Wednesday night nabbed a rare win among the adults 25-54 demo with two high-profile sit-downs.
Per Nielsen, MSNBC won adults 25-54 during primetime with an average 400,000 viewers in the key demo between 8 and 11 p.m. It just topped FNC’s 390,000 and posted a wider margin over No. 3 CNN (340,000). The latter took a win on Tuesday thanks to a town hall with the three remaining GOP candidates.
MSNBC had two events: a Chuck Todd-moderated John Kasich town hall; a town hall with Donald Trump, hosted by Chris Matthews; and longform Rachel Maddow interviews with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Among total viewers, MSNBC placed second to FNC with 1.58 million viewers to CNN’s 996,000. (FNC led with 2.2 million viewers.)
The cable news ratings seesaw continues — apparently to Trump’s advantage.
