Non-Don debate was huuuge
The Donald Trumpfree GOP presidential debate on Fox News drew about 12.5 million viewers, making it the secondhighestrated telecast in the network’s history, the network reported Friday.
The Thursdaynight showdown in Iowa also drew millions more eyeballs than Trump’s counterrally, which had about 1.76 million viewers on CNN and another million on MSNBC — less than a quarter of the debate audience, according to data from Nielsen Research.
Viewership held steady during the entire twohour debate, so people weren’t bailing to watch Trump’s event three miles away, which was billed as a fundraiser for wounded military vets.
The numbers proved to be an embarrassment for Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who had confidently predicted that the debate without the bombastic billionaire would draw only “1 or 2 million people.”
And Trump himself said the event would be a “total disaster” without him on the stage.
But Trump was typically unbowed when the numbers came in.
“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,” he tweeted Friday.
Still, the debate drew an 8.4 rating, the secondlowest of the campaign season. The figure indicates that 8.4 percent of all TV sets measured in the United States were tuned in.
The previous GOP debate on Fox Business Network two weeks ago drew a rating of 7.4.
The other five Republican debates had ratings of 8.9 to 15.9, with the muchanticipated first debate in August shattering records with 24 million viewers, Fox News’ highestrated show ever.
Nielsen Social TV ratings ranked the debate as the top topic on Twitter Thursday night with 1.073 million tweets and 162 million impressions, beating “American Idol” and WWE.
The next GOP debate is Feb. 6 on ABC in Manchester, NH.