Fox News hosted the first 2024 GOP presidential primary debate on Wednesday night but the current polling frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, skipped out and was featured in an pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson released just before the debate began.
Without Trump, there were questions before the debate about how the viewership would shake out. According to an Economist/YouGov poll on the topic, 58 percent of Republicans said they would “definitely or probably watch the debate,” compared with 38 percent of Democrats who said the same.
According to The Hill’s report on the survey conducted before Trump’s plans to skip were confirmed found, “42 percent of all adults surveyed said they will at least likely tune in, while 43 percent said they will at least probably not” and [i]ndependents were the least likely in the poll to indicate that they would watch, with only 31 percent saying they would definitely or probably watch.”
So, how did things shake out?
Over on X (formerly Twitter), Tucker Calson’s “Debate Night with Donald J Trump” has received more than 240 million “views” as of Thursday evening, though it’s unknown how many unique viewers actually tuned in or how much of the 46-minute interview they watched.
While some took to X to argue that Fox News “is dead,” the official ratings for the channel’s debate tell a different story.
The first GOP primary showdown on Fox News was, in fact, the most-watched telecast in all of linear TV, digital, and streaming on Wednesday night with an average of more than 12.8 million viewers including more than 2.8 million in the coveted 25-54 year-old demographic.
What’s more, Wednesday night’s debate hosted by Fox News beat more than 70 percent of all presidential debates in the 2016 and 2020 election cycles.
Wow nearly 13 million — plus 1.7 million on the Fox Business simulcast. Big number last night: https://t.co/CwGBeUZtjq
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 24, 2023
Despite the strong viewership numbers for the debate Trump skipped, the former president’s support has remained strong even while facing four indictments in various jurisdictions.
The day of the debate, Trump’s campaign team mocked the Republican candidates who took the stage. It is worth noting that none of them are polling close to the former president, who has dominated the GOP field since announcing his campaign.
A super PAC backing Trump trolled the candidates who did appear at the debate, saying the forum was merely an audition to become Trump’s running mate in 2024.