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By Matthew Impelli
Life & Trends Reporter
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The first Republican primary debate in the 2024 election cycle aired on Wednesday night, with Fox News seeing a decline in viewers compared to record-setting numbers in 2015.
A spokesperson for Fox provided viewership data to Newsweek on Thursday, showing that the debate averaged 12,803,000 viewers.
In 2015, a GOP primary debate aired on Fox News received 24 million viewers, which made it the network's highest-rated telecast in a 20-year span, CNN reported at the time. Additionally, a 2016 GOP primary debate received over 16 million viewers, which made it the highest-rated debate that year, CBS News reported.
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Following the 2016 debate, Fox News said that the debate in Detroit was the fourth-most watched primary debate in history. It also ranked as the second-most watched debate in Fox News history.
Wednesday's event failed to reach those previous record-setting numbers, signaling a win for former President Donald Trump, who skipped the debate. Instead, Trump and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released a sit-down interview that aired at 9 p.m. ET—the same time as the debate. The interview was taped several days ago. The interview between Carlson and Trump garnered over 200 million views on X, formerly Twitter.
According to X's Help Center, "anyone who is logged into Twitter who views a Tweet counts as a view, regardless of where they see the Tweet (e.g. Home, Search, Profiles, etc.) or whether or not they follow the author," which means that not everyone who viewed the Carlson-Trump interview watched the video in its entirety.
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"Sparks will fly," Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier on Wednesday. The interview streamed on X, formerly Twitter.
While Fox News didn't capture the same size audience as it did for Trump's first presidential primary debate, Wednesday's viewership was higher than 70 percent of all presidential primary debates in the 2016 and 2020 elections. Wednesday's viewership was also higher than the January 2016 debate, which Trump decided not to attend. That debate had 12.5 million viewers, about 300,000 fewer viewers than Wednesday's debate.
The former president took to his social media website earlier this week, as well, to slam his 2024 Republican rivals, writing: "New CBS POLL, just out, has me leading the field by "legendary" numbers. TRUMP 62%, 46 Points above DeSanctimonious (who is crashing like an ailing bird!), Ramaswamy 7%, Pence 5%, Scott 3%, Haley 2%, Sloppy Chris Christie 2%, "Aida" Hutchinson 1%."
"The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had, with Energy Independence, Strong Borders & Military, Biggest EVER Tax & Regulation Cuts, No Inflation, Strongest Economy in History, & much more. I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!"
While speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier in June, Trump discussed his hesitancy to attend the GOP primary debate, saying: "Why would I allow people at 1 or 2 percent and 0 percent to be hitting me with questions all night?"
Trump has also recently criticized Fox News, which is exclusively hosting the debate on Wednesday evening, calling the network "hostile."
The debate on Wednesday was moderated by Baier and Martha MacCallum and began at 9 p.m. ET, lasting for two hours.
"The stage is set, and the candidates are ready," The Republican National Committee (RNC) wrote in a Facebook post sharing photos of the GOP candidates that will be attending the debate.
The candidates featured in the debate included Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Update: 08/24/23, 5:37 p.m. ET. This story has been updated with a new headline and additional information.
Update: 08/25/23, 11:01 a.m. ET. This story has been updated with additional information.
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