What would happen if Fox News Channel ran a Republican presidential debate? In the summer? On a weekday evening? 15 months before the election and almost a half year before the first primary? Who would watch it?
The answer is that Fox News Channel\’s debate generated an astounding 24 million viewers. It blew away everyone. Higher ratings by far than any of the network shows. Versus the Jon Stewart\’s farewell show? Stewart got 3.5 million viewers…less than 10% of the debate audience.
And, to the Fox haters who try to convince themselves this is only those mouth-breathing evangelical, redneck Faux news idiots……that is over 20 million more people than watch any Fox show at any time in their entire schedule. Who do you suppose the other 20 million-plus viewers were? Idiots for a day?
Were people interested in this debate? Were they paying attention to it? That\’s like asking if Gladys Knight had Pips.
Was the Donald Trump sideshow a major reason for this level of viewership? Not to pamper Trump\’s ego, but I\’m sure it was. And the people who wanted to see Trump being Trump certainly got their money\’s worth.
But would it have generated huge viewership even without Trump? We\’ll never know for sure, but I am 100% certain the answer is yes.
For a reference point, look at the earlier debate – which was at 5:00PM – not prime time – and was comprised of candidates whose polling makes them, at least as of now, also-rans. According to Neilsen, it generated 6.1 million viewers…..literally 10 times what most prime time shows get on CNN. Put that same debate at 9:00PM and the numbers jump through the roof.
Was it interest in politics, generally? Nope. If that were the case there would be dramatically higher ratings for other political shows as well.
Was it interest in the Republican candidates? Probably in part, but there\’s no way to tell how much. We could measure it against the Democrat debates, but there have not been any, and – as of now – won\’t be until October.
Was it interest in how the debate hosts – Fox\’s Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace and Brett Baier – asked questions, compared to other network\’s debate hosts? Again, no way to tell. But I\’m betting that had a good deal to do with it. And did they ever ask tough, biting questions!
Is Roger Ailes happy about how things turned out? Not to repeat myself, but did Gladys Knight have Pips?
