FOX News’ GOP debate draws record 24MN viewers


Details

Michelle Clancy

| 08 August 2015





FOX News’ Republican Presidential Primary Debate telecast set a record for viewership of such events, drawing in 24 million total viewers.


Many were likely captivated by curiosity over what frontrunner Donald Trump would do or say — and shouldn’t have been disappointed — but polls show that he didn’t win the night in the eyes of Republicans.

That makes the two-hour event the most-watched non-sports cable telecast of all time in total viewers, according to FOX. It also doubled the network’s previous high of 11.8 million total viewers, generated during the 2012 presidential election.

The debate featured 10 Republican presidential candidates, and was moderated by FOX News journalists Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace.

Interestingly, FOX News also drew 6.1 million viewers for its early Republican Presidential debate, making it the third-highest primary presidential debate ever for the network. That event featured the seven other GOP candidates that didn’t make the top 10 cut-off in the polls. Notable participants included Carly Fiorentina.

In terms of who “won” the debate, a One America News Network and Gravis Marketing poll shows that Ben Carson and Marco Rubio scored well. Trump, who led the post-poll buzz and headlines, actually came in second on the questions of both “who won the debate?” and “who lost the debate?” showing a heavily polarised Republican base when it comes to their post-debate opinions of the New York businessman.

Rand Paul and Chris Christie did not have a good evening, with both scoring at the bottom of “who won?” and Paul taking the lead of “who lost?” with Christie coming in a distant third, behind Trump.

Polled registered Republican voters were also asked, “Do you have a more favourable or less favourable opinion of (each candidate) after the debate?” Poll results clearly show that Ben Carson won the first GOP debate in the minds of Republican voters, with Marco Rubio coming in second place. Rand Paul had a rough evening here too, uncharacteristic of his general performance in state and national polls