Mark this date down: On April 17, Bernie Sanders became the Sunday talk show champion, surpassing Donald Trump for the most appearances of the 2016 presidential campaign, according to USA TODAY's Sunday show tracker.
Sanders was booked on three programs Sunday — CNN's State of the Union, ABC's This Week and Face the Nation on CBS — giving him 71 Sunday show appearances since the beginning of 2015, one more than Donald Trump, who did not appear on any shows this week.
There is some irony here that the two candidates who are running as outsiders challenging the establishment are dominating the shows that are synonymous with the Washington establishment.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is in third place about 20 appearances behind the leaders, even with his interview Sunday on CNN. Ted Cruz lags about 20 appearances behind Kasich and Hillary Clinton remains behind Cruz by a handful of appearances even with her Sunday interview on ABC. (Though Clinton probably leads in Saturday Night Live segments.)
