SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 27: Republican presidential candidates (L-R), former U.N. ... [+]
9.5 million viewers watched the second Republican presidential debate Wednesday night, with viewership spread across three networks, Fox Business (1.817 million viewers), Fox News Channel (6.693 million viewers) and Univision (813,000 viewers). Between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, the debate outperformed all other programs on the broadcast and cable news networks. On Fox Business, the debate delivered the network’s highest-rated telecast since 2016.
Among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers, the debate drew nearly 2 million viewers, with Fox News drawing the largest single audience (1.212 million viewers). Fox Business drew 411,000 viewers in the key demo, and Univision delivered an audience of 265,000 viewers.
(From L) North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, former ... [+]
Across prime time, Fox News drew 4.5 million viewers, well ahead of the cable news competition, with all of the networks focusing heavily on the GOP debate. MSNBC was second overall with 1.593 million viewers, followed by Fox Business (1.033 million viewers), and CNN with 687,000 viewers.
In the key demo, Fox News was first between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, with 748,000 viewers, followed by Fox Business (217,000 viewers), MSNBC (147,000 viewers), and CNN (127,000 viewers).
Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe'
Reaction to the debate included MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who called it “a colossal embarrassing mess,” noting that the candidates “were just shouting over each other” rather than having a substantive conversation about Donald Trump’s fitness to be the party’s nominee in 2024.
“There's certainly nobody talking about him calling for the assassination of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, even when that morning, you had the Wall Street Journal editorial page doing that,” he said. “And that morning, on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, you had a story about how Donald Trump committed such massive fraud that he may lose his license to do business in the state of New York, his primary place of business, but nobody talked about that.”
Simi Valley, CA - September 27:Simi Valley, CA - September 27:Republican Presidential Candidates, L ... [+]
Writing in The Hill, columnist Max Burns said the debate left him asking “why the GOP continues to subject itself to so much avoidable humiliation.”
“What the American people saw at the Reagan Presidential Library was a Republican Party in full-on fracture, where none of the feuding candidates could lay claim to a constituency large enough to be taken seriously in the face of Trump’s dominating polling lead,” Burns wrote.