Thursday night’s Fox News/Google GOP Presidential debate became the most watched primary debate so far this year averaging over six million viewers in both the 9 and 10 PM hours. In the key A25-54 demographic it averaged just a tad over 1.7 million viewers, placing it a close second behind the MSNBC sponsored debate at the Reagan Library earlier this month.
This was a big jump from the CNN/Tea Party debate which attracted 3.6 million and 1.1 million viewers respectively on September 12, but more in line with the more than 5 million viewers that watched the other debates in August and September.
Considering the heavy use of technology, with questions being submitted by video and email as well as polls being conducted on the Internet throughout the debate, it is a little surprising that the A25-54 demo numbers weren’t higher than the MSNBC debate.
Nevertheless the Fox News/Google debate set a pretty high bar for the Bloomberg/Washington Post debate scheduled for October 11.
The GOP Debate ratings so far:
| Debate | Network | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 22 | Fox News | 6,107,000 | 1,701,000 |
| Sept. 12 | CNN | 3,600,000 | 1,100,000 |
| Sept. 7 | MSNBC | 5,411,000 | 1,728,000 |
| Aug. 11 | Fox News | 5,053,000 | 1,430,000 |
| June 13 | CNN | 3,162,000 | 918,000 |
| May 5 | Fox News | 3,258,000 | 854,000 |
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