The 9th GOP debate among the final 6 candidates was watched by 13.5 million viewers on CBS last night.
That’s the fifth most-watched GOP debate this cycle and highest since CNN’s GOP debate on Dec. 15. The 2-hour debate peaked between 10:00-10:30 p.m. ET, with 14.63 million viewers. There are two more GOP debates scheduled, one before Super Tuesday on CNN, and one two days after Super Tuesday, on Fox News.
The final debate of the 2012 cycle occurred on Feb. 22, 2012, with four candidates: Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich. There were 20 GOP debates last time around.
Here’s the 2016 debate ranker, which includes Nielsen viewership data, along with livestreaming information provided by the networks.
Debate | Network | Total Viewers | A25-54 | Streams |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aug. 6 | GOP | Fox News | 24,000,000 | 7,900,000 | 2,400000** |
Sept. 16 | GOP | CNN | 22,940,000 | 6,900,000 | 4,500,000 |
Oct. 13 | Dem | CNN | 15,791,000 | 4,998,000 | 4,300,000 |
Oct. 28 | GOP | CNBC | 14,000,000 | 3,900,000 | *** |
Nov. 10 | GOP | FBN | 13,500,000 | 3,670,000 | 2,800,000 |
Nov. 14 | Dem | CBS | 8,500,000 | 2,120,000 | 1,200,000 |
Dec. 15 | GOP | CNN | 18,165,000 | 5,560,000 | 3,100,000 |
Dec. 19 | Dem | ABC | 7,850,000 | 1,928,000 | *** |
Jan. 14 | GOP | FBN | 11,094,000 | 2,983,000 | 1,900,000 |
Jan. 17 | Dem | NBC | 10,200,000 | 3,170,000 | 1,200,000 |
Jan. 28 | GOP | Fox News | 12,466,000 | 3,467,000 | 1,350,000 |
Feb. 4 | Dem | MSNBC | 4,489,000 | 1,211,000 | *** |
Feb. 6 | GOP | ABC | 13,181,000 | 3,384,000 | 1,300,000 |
Feb. 11 | Dem | PBS (with CNN simulcast) | 8,030,000 | 2,300,000 | TBD |
Feb. 13 | GOP | CBS | 13,510,000 | 3,520,000 | TBD |
Feb. 25 | GOP | CNN | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Mar. 3 | GOP | Fox News | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Mar. 6 | Dem | CNN | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Mar. 9 | Dem | Univision | TBD | TBD | TBD |
**Users needed to be an authenticated viewer to watch the livestream.
***Livestream data has not been revealed.