Viewers have savaged CBS' handling of Tuesday night's Democratic debate, describing it as a 'god awful undignified mess'.

Seven Democratic candidates took to the stage in Charleston, South Carolina for the event, which was broadcast by the network and moderated by its star anchors, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell.

But the affair quickly descended into chaos with the contenders shouting over each other, as the moderators failed to adequately intervene.

Twitter users were quick to compare the scenes to something from reality TV, with multiple tweets making reference to Jerry Springer, The Real Housewives and WWE Wrestling.

Even The View co-host Meghan McCain chimed in to say that the on-stage anarchy overshadowed even the most severe screaming match on her daytime panel program.

'These moderators need to get this under control. This is way worse than any bad day @TheView hot topics table. At least Whoopi has the bell,' McCain wrote.

Later, King and O'Donnell were joined by fellow CBS journalists Bill Whitaker, Margaret Brennan and Major Garrett to help with the moderation, but the five stars still couldn't rein in the unruly candidates.

Viewers have savaged CBS' handling of Tuesday night's Democratic debate, which was moderated by Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King

Candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden were frequently interrupted during the debate

Comedy website Funny Or Die shared a GIF of characters from The Simpsons engaged in a brawl accompanied by the sarcastic remark: 'Enjoying the debate'.

At times, several of the candidates became frustrated with the lack of intervention from the moderators, with Pete Buttigieg at one point speaking over the top of Bernie Sanders for almost 30 seconds.

'You're the moderators, guys,' Sanders gruffly remarked.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden also appeared fed up, lamenting: 'I guess the only way to do this is jump in and speak twice as long as you should. Why am I stopping? No one else stops.'

The New York Times was critical of some of the questioning, with the moderators omitting grilling the candidates about the Supreme Court and the stock market.

They also were slammed for asking about Bloomberg's soda ban, ahead of other issues including the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, other viewers took issue with the fact that the debate venue was stacked with attendees who paid four figures for tickets.

Several noticed that the audience appeared to favor Establishment candidates, particularly Bloomberg.

'Bloomberg bought out most of the audience and paid people to cheer for him and boo his foes,' one claimed.

The claim has not been proven, but CBS did also garner backlash for airing an ad fir the billionaire in one of its commercial breaks.

The entire situation was enough to prompt one conservative to imagine Democrats watching the debate with a sense of anxiety.

They shared a GIF of a character from King of The Hill with his head in his hands and wrote: 'House Democrats up for re-election watching the #DemDebates'.