The Thursday debate between the governor of California. Gavin Newsom and the Governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis on Fox News, the talk about the political world this past week, resulted in a significant increase in the channel’s ratings.

Billed as ‘The Great Red State vs. Blue State Debate,” the event, moderated by Fox News host Sean Hannity, averaged 4.75 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.

The number was more than double the November average for “Hannity,” which reached 2.3 million viewers, as the debate attracted people who wouldn’t normally watch his late-night rants against liberals and the Biden administration. This figure also accounted for 73% of viewers watching cable news in the 9 p.m. time slot.

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The event faced stiff competition, with an exciting, high-scoring “Thursday Night Football” game between the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks streaming on Amazon, and the most-watched finale of “The Golden Bachelor” on ABC TV program from recent years. the night.

The long-awaited match took place in a suburban area outside

by

Atlanta was unusual for TV news, pitting DeSantis, a candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, against a sitting governor who has repeatedly stated he will not run for national office.

Newsom, a leading surrogate for the Democratic party, also entered an arena where the moderator, Hannity, was clearly politically aligned with DeSantis.

Despite Hannity’s attempts to maintain order, he argued both on and off air with both participants trying not to talk about each other. The 90-minute event became chaotic at times, making it difficult for viewers to understand either of them.

The questions asked by

the conservative host

were largely built around unfavorable comparisons of California to Florida on issues like crime and the handling of the COVID-19

pandemic

homelessness and gas prices, and put Newsom on the defensive for much of the evening.

But Newsom entered the confrontation with nothing to lose as he insists he will not be a Democratic candidate for president in 2024, despite talk in right-wing circles. He spent much of his time defending the achievements of President Biden’s administration while being exposed to a national audience that may not have known him.

When Hannity asked a question pointedly stating that Biden was in cognitive decline, Newsom responded that he would “take Joe Biden at 100 against Ron DeSantis any day of the week at any age.”

DeSantis needed the event to revive his flagging presidential campaign, as he trails former President Trump badly in the polls and has fallen behind former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in some primary states.

DeSantis used props in his presentation, including a very brown map showing the amount of human feces on the streets of San Francisco, where Newsom was once mayor.

Fox News used clips of the debate in its opinion programs on Friday, touting it as a victory for DeSantis, who has so far failed to catch fire with the network’s audience.

“This was a victory of conservatism over liberalism,” said Kaleigh McEnany, the former Trump White House press secretary and now co-host of the Fox News show “Outnumbered.”

But McEnany said Newsom, whom she described as “sharp,” cannot be written off as a political competitor.

“Watch out for him, because he’s coming, if not in ’24, then in ’28,” she said.