During the race for the White House in 2016, former presidential candidate Donald

Trump

What

responsible for making the

Republican

primary debates

a must-watch television events

.

But also without Trump

on the stage

Fox News managed to attract the biggest

cable tv tv

audience for a non-sport program until now this year with its Wednesday showdown between

GOP

candidates for 2024

Republican Republican presidential election

presentation.

An average of 12.8 million viewers watched the broadcast of the event

Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee,

according to Nielsen

. The two-hour program was simulcast on Fox News and sister channel Fox Business Network.

ABC’s broadcast of the Oscars on March 12 (with an average of 18.7 million viewers) and CBS’s coverage of the Grammys (TKTK) were the only non-sporting events to attract larger audiences this year. question open

The TV audience was

taller

than any Republican presidential primary debate

drew during the

2012 campaign season

four years

before Trump emerged as the main attraction. It also surprised audiences for Fox News’ Jan

uari

The 2016 primary debate in Iowa, which Trump skipped

also

.

Fox News ran a GOP debate on August 11, 2011 that was watched by:

On average, 5.05 million viewers watched a Fox News GOP debate on the comparable date of August 11, 2011.

which was viewed by A.

The network’s second debate in that cycle

,

on September 22, 2011 averaged 6.1 million viewers. (

Senator {wasn’t a Senator until 2019 and last government job had been Governor of Massachusetts, so removed Senator and R-Utah-BH}

Mitt Romney

R-Utah, became wax

the Republican candidate

that year

lost to Democratic incumbent Barack Obama in the general election.)

The viewing figures for the first 2024

Republican primaries

The events were not expected to approach the record

–

the level of 2015, when Trump first appeared

the

Debate stage attracted 24 million viewers

for

Fox news. Cutting cords has affected Fox News reach, which is in 20 million fewer homes

than

in 2015.

Fox News made the debate available to stream for free on its website and on its subscription streaming service Fox Nation.

Trump attempted to spoil the Fox News debate by attending an interview with Tucker Carlson, the network’s former top-rated host, who was pulled off the air on April 24. Carlson hosted the pre-recorded interview on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Trump made no news during the conversation with a sympathetic Carlson, which was at times so low-key that it bordered on soporific. There is no metric

because that measures video viewing

videos on X that are similar

with how

Nielsen figures, which count the average number of people watching the program in any given minute.

X users who came across the Carlson-Trump video on their accounts are counted as a “view” even though they are

only

see a short moment.

Trump decided

to sit out against showing up

the event, citing his large lead over the rest of the Republican field. He has also expressed irritation with the coverage of his 2024 campaign on Fox News, even though the fidelity paid to him by some of his on-air talent led the network to pay a $787.5 million settlement in a libel suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.

The voting software company claimed it was damaged by Fox News repeatedly raising Trump’s false accusations of fraud in the 2020 election. Trump has been sued in federal court and in the state of Georgia over his efforts to overturn the election. Trump is expected to surrender in Georgia on Thursday.

The Fox News debate, moderated by Washington hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier, was a spirited affair even without Trump as the candidates

new

Political newcomer to the race, millennial entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy, who has risen in the polls behind Trump and the Florida governor. Ron DeSantis took center stage and scored the most time of any podium contender.

Ramaswamy rebuked his seven opponents as professional politicians

m he described as being

bought and paid for by special interests. They returned fire, citing his lack of experience and his own

controversial

Views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The candidate has said he would cut US aid to Ukraine and believes Russia

should be possible

retain the territory it now holds.