Posted on 01/29/2016 3:58:29 PM PST by Kaslin
That headline is technically accurate: Last night's Trump-free Fox News forum pulled in roughly 12-13 million viewers, better than the 11 million or so who watched the Fox Business debate earlier this month, at which The Donald stood center stage. Trump out, ratings up! Well, sort of. The Des Moines debate was still the second-least watched GOP debate of the cycle (maybe third-least, including online live streams), and many Trump fans -- suddenly highly interested in nuance in context -- are pointing out that the lowest-rated one aired on FBN, which has a smaller footprint than Fox News or CNN nationwide. True enough, although FBN's November debate rated higher than three others, suggesting that viewership for these events has declined over time, with and without Trump. To wit: The Donald's social media army trying to pit last night's numbers (which dwarfed CNN and MSNBC's combined coverage of the billionaire's counter-programming rally) against Fox's August ratings bonanza, which is a ridiculous comparison. Fox and CNN's first debates garnered truly massive audiences, then each network experienced a drop-off of millions of viewers in its subsequent debate, as did Fox Business. TV Line probably has the most evenhanded headline I've seen, characterizing the ratings as "steady' in Trump's absence. The Trump campaign hilariously predicted that just "one or two million" Americans would tune into last night's proceedings. Oops. What's undoubtedly clear is that the current cycle's Republican debates are attracting much more attention than they did in 2012:
More context: In 2012, the highest-rated #GOPDebate (ABC NH) drew 7.6 mil viewers.
Without Trump on stage, ~12 mil watched last night.— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 29, 2016
Lowest-rated #GOPDebate (1/14 on FBN) still beat 3 of the 4 Dem debates -- two of which aired on broadcast nets: pic.twitter.com/cz10UMUQch— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 29, 2016
We watched on CSPAN.
Kaslin = Joke.
The same stats generates two different headlines depending upon the author’s bias.
It’s either the second worst numbers or its better than the last one.
Even if Trump was there, I don’t think it would have had good numbers. Those who were interested have made up their mind.
Especially when they're mostly Democrats.
I read before the debate that their ratings would be cut by 83%. I bet $40 to FR that it would not. Guess I don’t need to pay up.
Although I’m paying monthly regardless of Trump, Cruz, Kelly and ratings. Feel free to join in, folks!
I watched the debate just to see how bad they attacked Trump...I started watching Trump on CNN but for most of the time, they cut the audio of the rally off and the viewers were forced to listen to Bob Beckett badmouth Trump...The entire program...
It was on at least three channels including the unrated C-Span which has the widest reach of all. It also started 15 minutes after the debate and ended 45 minutes before the debate ended.
Lots of ways to goose the numbers to make Fox look good and let stooges like yourself crow about it.
But only half the viewership of the first FNC debate. Not exactly something to crow about, especially since their sister network, Fox BiZ, reaches 20% fewer households.
Nonetheless, I’m now seriously re-assessing my support for Trump since the FNC debate had slightly more viewers than the the Fox Biz debate.
She looks like a hard edged embittered middle aged woman. Not ageing well at all. Her current greased down, prison chic dyke hairdo, sort of like Jackson Teller’s in “Sons of Anarchy,” certainly doesn’t help her at all.
Definitely is, but it’s coming out as the slicked down Jackson Teller jail bird look.
That is one bad picture of Me-gyn.
Ah, here comes the mindless insults from a Trump sniffer such as yourself because I dared to make a comment about the debate figures.
So there was a third channel, CSPAN with an unknown number of viewers.
Now also factor in the normal number of Democrats and airport sitters that watch CNN/MSBNC and CPAN.
I'm thinking that Trump, the guy who is supposed to be leading the pack with a loyal 40% of the voters, cut Fox's rating by about 20%.
That’s what you get for watching the Clinton News Network aka Commie News Network
Trump owned Fox last night.
-btw Using a platform like CNN to reach millions of American travelers who likely stopped to watch Trump host a benefit for veterans for a few minutes on their way home from a long day is just another out of the box example of the way Trump plays the media game.
LOL, I didn't call your two points mindless. Read it again. I simply responded by pointing out a factor that would counterbalance your points. But you read what I wrote incorrectly because you're an emotional, chinless, Rachel Maddowesque, Trump nozzler.
-btw Using a platform like CNN to reach millions of American travelers who likely stopped to watch Trump host a benefit for veterans for a few minutes on their way home from a long day is just another out of the box example of the way Trump plays the media game.
People who watch CNN and MSNBC are mindless Obama supporters. They won't vote for Trump in Nov., they will vote for Hillary.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.