Donald Trump Gives 'Meet the Press' a Ratings Best for Chuck Todd

Climbing 36 percent from a year ago, the Republican candidate's appearance marks the show's biggest audience since 2014.

If you book him, they will come.

The latest news show to benefit from Donald Trump is Meet the Press. Capping off a stretch of several strong weeks for the NBC show, Chuck Todd's interviews with the Republican presidential candidate (his only appearance on the Sunday programs) and Sen. Bernie Sanders drove the show to its biggest audience since February 2014. That easily makes it the most-watched since Todd took over from David Gregory last August.

Meet the Press averaged 3.612 million viewers on Sunday, averaging 739,000 more than ABC's This Week and 775,000 more than Face the Nation. Compared to last year, when the struggling Meet the Press was changing hands, the episode's audience is up by 36 percent.

With just over 1 million adults 25-54, Meet the Press also locked down the key demo — where it was up 37 percent.

All in all, its an even bigger boost than when Trump made the rounds in the immediate aftermath of the first GOP debate. The Aug. 9 episode brought Meet the Press just a 16 percent bump.