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On the subject of debates, the difficulty of rankings is often only a curiosity. However within the face of polls exhibiting Donald Trump approaching 60% assist amongst Republican main voters — and an unusually excessive proportion of these voters who say their minds are already made up — the matter took on new significance final evening.
And with the previous president skipping the controversy as soon as once more, how a lot curiosity will there be in listening to from a gaggle of candidates apart from Trump?
The reply, in keeping with the Nielsen scores service: about 9.3 million folks. That marked a pointy decline from the primary debate, which was additionally held with out Trump and attracted about 12.8 million viewers. It additionally represents — by a large margin — the bottom tv viewership for any Republican presidential debate because the begin of the 2016 cycle, when Trump first grew to become a candidate.
Beneath is a chart of estimated viewership for all GOP debates because the 2016 cycle. Whereas it is true that the world of tv and streaming has modified dramatically over the previous eight years — which can clarify among the viewers slide — there is not any escaping that final evening represented a major milestone. Low on GOP curiosity in debate within the Trump period.
Regardless of being broadcast on Fox Enterprise Community, Fox Information Channel and Univision, it nonetheless attracted roughly 3.4 million fewer viewers than the primary GOP debate only a month earlier, which was hosted by Fox Information. That is a 27% lower. In contrast, the decline between the primary and second debates of the 2016 cycle — each of which Trump participated in — was simply 4%.
In a press launch on Thursday, Fox Information stated one other 200,000 viewers watched the sequence on streaming platforms. The numbers within the chart under replicate TV viewership solely.
Nigel Chiwaya And Daniel Arkin Contributed.