On Sunday, Hillary Clinton will make her first appearance on the Sunday morning political shows as a 2016 presidential candidate when she sits down with CBS’s John Dickerson on Face the Nation. She’s getting a very late start: While Clinton has so far avoided interviews with the “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) Sunday shows, 18 other presidential candidates have made a total of 106 appearances since January 1, with Socialist Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) topping the list with 12.
Republican Donald Trump has received the most air time of any candidate this year, totaling 98 minutes in 11 appearances followed by Sanders with 78 minutes. Republican Mike Huckabee ranked third overall, second among Republicans, with 71 minutes of air time despite appearing the same number of times as the GOP frontrunner.
Four of six declared 2016 Democratic candidates have appeared on the Sunday shows, with Sanders receiving a whopping 63 percent of his party’s air time. Of the 15 Republicans (including Rick Perry) who have appeared, Donald Trump made up 17 percent of the total 591 minutes given to the GOP candidates.
Former Governor Martin O’Malley (D-MD) has made the second most appearances of all Democratic candidates, with six, despite receiving less than two percent his party’s support in the latest RCP average of national polls.
On the Republican side, Senator Lindsey Graham has made nine Sunday show appearances in 2015, ranking forth among the presidential candidates, yet he currently ranks last among all GOP candidates with 0.3% support nationally according to the latest RCP average. In contrast, Ben Carson, who is currently in second place among all GOP candidates, has made 6 Sunday show appearances and has received a mere 33 minutes of air time compared to Graham’s 53 minutes.
Jeb Bush, who in the early part of 2016 was one of the top GOP candidates in national polling appeard only a single time on the May 31 Face the Nation, and spoke with then-moderator Bob Schieffer for 15 minutes which was the least among all GOP candidates.
ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos has been the most friendly network to Democrats, providing 52 percent of all 21 candidate appearances, whereas NBC's Meet the Press has been the least friendly network to Republican presidential candidates, representing just 27 percent of all 85 GOP appearances this year.
After Clinton's Sunday appearance, Lincoln Chafee will be the only declared Democrat yet to appear on the Sunday shows, while and former governors Jim Gilmore (R-VA) and George Pataki (R-N.Y.) are the only Republicans with zero Sunday appearances.
