TV Ratings: Third Republican Debate Slumps

Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis Wednesday Evening

Nielsen viewing data for the two-hour live Republican presidential primary debate event Wednesday hosted by NBC News drew an average of 7.51 million total viewers across NBC, NBC News Now, NBCNews.com, Peacock, Sky News, Universo, NoticiasTelemundo.com and Noticias Telemundo’s social platforms, according to TV Newser.

Out of the 7.51 million, 6.86 million watched the proceedings on the NBC broadcast network; and out of that 6.86 million total, just 1.31 million Adults 25-54 demo watched.

Roughly 9.5 million people watched the second debate of the 2024 election cycle (co-hosted by Fox Business and Univision) across Fox News Media and Univision linear and streaming platforms on September 27 (1.82 million on FBN, 6.69 million on Fox News, 813,000 on Univision). Previously, 12.8 million people watched the first debate of the 2024 election cycle across Fox News Media linear and streaming platforms on August 23 (11.09 million on Fox News, 1.7 million on FBN) — the most-watched non-sports telecast of 2023 to-date.

For comparison purposes, that means there was about a -26% decrease in total viewers from the FBN-Univision GOP debate, and a -46% decrease in total viewers relative to the Fox News GOP debate, the first of the 2024 cycle.

Reasons for the drop-off in viewership may be three-fold: 1) Debate fatigue. 2) Conservatives/GOP voters are increasingly sticking to Fox News and other right-leaning media outlets for their news content over broadcast and the non-Fox cable news outlets. It’s why Fox News-hosted GOP primary debates have captured more viewers than GOP debates hosted by the broadcast networks over the past decade, despite the discrepancy in reach. 3) The debate was going up against the Country Music Awards on ABC, an event that draws a heavily conservative/Republican audience.

Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN (w/permission)

 The fourth Republican presidential primary debate of the 2024 election cycle will air on NewsNation and the CW and take place on December 6 at the University of Alabama.