First GOP Debate Draws 13 Million, Gives Fox News the Most-Watched Non-Sports Cable Telecast of 2023

Democracy 24: Fox News Republican Primary Debate had more than a few lookie-loos.

The first debate between Republican presidential hopefuls — well, all but one of ’em — averaged 13 million viewers across Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Nation and Fox News Digital on Wednesday night, outdrawing “more than 70% of all presidential primary debates in the last two cycles (2016 and 2020),” Fox News Media reports via Nielsen.

Among the “recent” debates not trumped by Wednesday night’s eight-candidate face-off, the two-night first Democratic debate of the 2020 presidential election cycle averaged 16.7 million total viewers for NBC/ MSNBC/Telemundo in June 2019 (not including live streaming).

That said, Democracy 24: Fox News Republican Primary Debate drew a larger audience than Fox News’ previous debate in Iowa circa January 2016, which averaged 12.5 million viewers.

Fox News proper’s share of the debate audience (11.1 million) marks the most-watched non-sports cable telecast of 2023, besting Paramount’s Yellowstone (which on Jan. 1 drew 8.2 million). And the 2.4 million viewers in cable news’ 25-54 target demo topped everything that aired on cable TV Wednesday night.

In a poll of TVLine readers (below), Nikki Haley did best among the debaters, earning 30% of your vote. She was followed by Chris Christie (23%), Vivek Ramaswamy (20%) and Ron DeSantis (12%).