Kamala Harris Fox News Interview Draws Big Ratings — Trounces Trump Town Hall

Fox News anchor Bret Baier’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris drew impressive ratings on Wednesday night, proving the event to have been a successful strategy for both the cable news network and the Democratic nominee.

According to early Nielsen ratings, 7.1 million viewers tuned in to watch what was an at times contentious interview between the Fox anchor and presidential candidate. In the advertiser’s coveted 25-54 age demo, 882,000 viewers watched. Fox News press release adds:

Combined with the show’s midnight airing (6-6:30 PM/ET and 12-12:30 AM/ET), Special Report’s interview with Vice President Harris secured 8.5 million viewers and 1.2 million in the 25-54 demo making it Vice President Harris’ top-rated interview since becoming the democratic nominee. Across all FNC’s airings of its interviews with Vice President Harris and former President Trump, the network averaged over 11 million viewers on Wednesday.

Harris made the case for her own candidacy and argued that former President Donald Trump is an unstable figure unfit to serve as president — including in the eyes of many of his former cabinet members.

Baier confronted Harris on some of her evolving positions on border policy and through tough questions and aggressive follow ups extracted some of the most meaningful answers she’s provided on the campaign trail to date.

The viewership was considerably higher than the audience that usually tunes into Special Report, which is already the top show on cable news in its hour. For comparison, in the third quarter of 2024, Special Report averaged 2.5 million viewers a night.

That Harris would appear on Fox News was never a given. She has never before gone on the network that is considered anathema to many Democratic voters. Her campaign reasoned that the benefit of being the first Democratic presidential candidate to go on Fox News in 8 years was to appeal to undecided or persuadable voters, or Republicans who voted for Nikki Haley and are questioning their support for Trump.

On the same day as the Harris interview, Fox News aired a decidedly pro-Trump town hall hosted by anchor Harris Faulkner that drew 3 million viewers.

Harris handily beating Trump in ratings on Wednesday can be blamed on several variables, such as the time of day it aired (in television parlance, a higher HUT — households using television) and also the unique nature of a Democratic candidate going on Fox News as opposed to a Trump town hall with a friendly interviewer and little in the way of headlines.