Debates: 2.5 Million Watch Fox

More than 2.5 million people watched Fox News Channel’s coverage of the second GOP debate Wednesday night.

According to live plus same day ratings data, the network averaged 2,551,000 total viewers and 720,000 in the 25-54 demo from 9 to 10:30pm. By comparison, 1.7 million watched MSNBC’s GOP debate on May 3.

Update: 5:12pm: According to live only data, FNC had 2,441,000 viewers with 663,000 in the 25-54 demo and 559,000 in the 18-49 demo.

Back to live plus: The pre-show at 8pm (mostly an O’Reilly repeat) averaged 1,449,000 viewers and 295,000 in the demo, significantly fewer than O’Reilly’s average in the time slot.

The Hannity & Colmes post-show from 10:32 to 11pm delivered 2,009,000 viewers with 551,000 in the demo. From 11 to midnight, H&C averaged 1,245,000 with 350,000 in the demo.

A replay of the debate from midnight to 1:30am had 646,000 total viewers and 225,000 demo viewers…