Fox News had a big win with last night’s debate, their 2nd highest rated show in Fox News history:
FOX NEWS – Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate on FOX News Channel scored 12.5 million viewers, making it the second-highest rated telecast in the network’s history.
The debate topped all television shows — including broadcast programs — on Thursday night in total viewers. It also pulled in 3.5 million viewers in the advertiser-friendly demo of adults aged 25-54, according to Early Nielsen Research.
The debate beat CNN and MSNBC combined in both total viewers and the 25-54 demo. Those networks aired segments of a Donald Trump rally, which was scheduled after the GOP contender withdrew from the Fox News debate.
Here’s how the actual numbers broke down in the 25-54 demo:
Here’s the actual numbers broke down in total viewership:
If you combine CNN and MSNBC in both the demo and total viewership for the corresponding Trump rally, Fox News beat them by four times or better, as we reported this morning with the preliminary numbers. It was simply no contest.
But what’s more interesting to me is how they did against previous GOP debates. The viewership of the last Fox Business debate was only 11 million and the one from last month at CNN was 18 million. The Fox Business debate before that drew 13.5 million viewers. The CNBC debate before that had 14 million viewers.
Now clearly Trump’s absence led to lower ratings, but that is also attributable to the fact that there have been 7 debates already and some people stop tuning in after a while.
Trump tweeted this out earlier:
They say that if I participated in last night’s Fox debate, they would have had 12 million more & would have broken the all time record.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2016
I honestly don’t believe that’s true. There might have been several million more viewers, but not 12. But then when has The Donald ever not given an overinflated view of himself? He’s clearly a narcissist in all things, including ratings.