The next primary debate is less than three weeks away, as CNN hosts the GOP candidates on Tuesday, Dec. 15. It’ll be the 7th debate this cycle. By this time in the 2008 cycle there had been 19 debates among both Democrats and Republicans. The next debate will be the 5th for GOP candidates. Compared to last time around, by Dec. 15, 2011 there had been 13 GOP primary debates. The most-watched debate of that cycle came in December, when ABC drew 7.63 million viewers for its debate on Saturday, Dec. 10 2011.
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 | 2,580,000 |
| 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 | TBD |
| Jan. 14 | GOP | FBN | 11,094,000 | 2,983,000 | 1,165,000 |
| Jan. 17 | Dem | NBC | 10,200,000 | 3,170,000 | 1,200,000 |
| Jan. 28 | GOP | Fox News | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Feb. 6 | GOP | ABC | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Feb. 11 | Dem | PBS | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Feb. 13 | GOP | CBS | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Feb. 25 | GOP | CNN | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Mar. 9 | Dem | Univision | TBD | TBD | TBD |
**Users needed to be an authenticated viewer to watch the livestream.
***CNBC is not sharing their livestream data.