WHO WON The Trump-Fox News Feud?! HERE’S What The RATINGS Say!!
It was probably the most highly anticipated debate of this presidential election cycle, only because el Trumpo made such a melodramatic exit from the Fox News stage.
But if you want to know who the clear winner is, all you have to do is look at the ratings (from CNN Money):
Donald Trump counter-programmed Thursday’s GOP primary debate with his own prime time event. So whose show scored a bigger audience?
Answer: Fox’s debate. But it was the second lowest rated debate of the season. So Trump is certain to take credit for hurting the channel’s total viewership.
The first hour of Fox’s Trump-less debate had an 8.4 household rating, according to early Nielsen data on so-called metered markets.
This means 8.4% of American homes with TV sets were watching the face-off.
The second hour had an 8.3 rating, which means the audience was loyal even though Trump was absent.
By comparison, two of the cable channels that showed parts of Trump’s event, CNN and MSNBC, had about a quarter of Fox’s audience combined.
The most recent GOP debate, televised two weeks ago on the Fox Business Network, had a household rating of 7.4.
So Thursday’s debate was bigger — but not by much.
The other five GOP debates of the cycle have had household ratings ranging from 8.9 to 15.9.
Actual viewership numbers will be available later in the day on Friday. Fox News likely had 11 million to 13 million viewers for the debate.
Notice that they’re trying to downplay it to give Trump a win here – but why would the media want to do that? Makes you wonder.
A more honest comparison would be to show the ratings from four years ago in the 2012 presidential election cycle.
