Fox News' first Republican primary debate got a terrible response from American television viewers, with the broadcast losing about half the audience Fox’s kickoff debate had during the 2016 election.
According to Nielsen, an estimated 12.8 million people watched Wednesday’s Republican debate on Fox, a decline of almost 50% from the more than 24 million people who tuned in when Donald Trump appeared in his first presidential debate in August 2015.
The "Trump effect" was again witnessed in a January 2016 Republican primary debate hosted by Fox News that Trump also skipped — that debate also drew about 12.5 million people.
Trump said he boycotted the Republican debate this week for a number of reasons, including his large lead over other GOP rivals in the polls.
He has also expressed disappointment the Republican National Committee awarded the first two debates to Fox News, a network that has been openly hostile to him.
The chairman of Fox, billionaire Rupert Murdoch, claimed in a 2021 email he was seeking to make Trump a "non-person." The network has been openly supporting Ron DeSantis’ candidacy for the 2024 primary.
Meanwhile, Trump has been praising Newsmax and appearing regularly on the network.
At a July Turning Point conference, Trump mentioned Fox News, drawing widespread boos from the conservative audience. Trump then plugged Newsmax.
"Greg Kelly over at Newsmax— the Newsmax people have been really, really terrific," Trump said. "Newsmax has been terrific."
Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, reported that Tucker Carlson's interview with Trump had 236.7 million views — a count of how many times someone scrolled by Carlson's interview with Trump in their feeds.
Support from Fox’s audience has fallen since the network fired Carlson, its No. 1 prime-time host, last April.
The move appears to have led to a significant ratings decline for Fox, dropping 23% in total audience across total day, year-over-year, according to Nielsen.
Meanwhile, Newsmax has seen a 50% increase in total audience across the day during the same time period.
And a recent McLaughlin national poll of Republican voters asked if Carlson’s departure made it less likely or more likely they would "trust Fox News."
Only 8% responded they were more likely to trust Fox and a sizable 44% said they were less likely to trust Fox after Tucker's firing.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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