The audience for NewsNation‘s Wednesday-night Republican primary debate was one of the smallest and the biggest.
Nearly 1.6 million tuned in to the Nexstar-backed upstart cable-news outlet to watch two former Republican governors, one current one and one outlier tangle for attention and donors in a debate moderated by Elizabeth Vargas, Megyn Kelly and Eliana Johnson, with more than 2.5 million choosing to watch a simulcast on the CW broadcast network, a corporate sibling. At about 4.1 million, the overall TV audience is the smallest secured so far for this cycle’s Republican debates, two of which were broadcast by Fox News Media and a third by NBCUniversal.
But for Nexstar, the numbers may as well be akin to the Super Bowl. The NewsNation primetime lineup typically lures tens of thousands, not hundreds.
“This debate represents a remarkable achievement for a cable news network that is just barely three years old. We’re very proud of the NewsNation team, the great job done by the moderators, and the overall production,” said Sean Compton, president of networks for Nexstar Media, in a prepared statement.
Preliminary digital results show nearly 400,000 users livestreamed some portion of the debate via the NewsNation website or mobile app.
Compared to NewsNation’s more established rivals, the numbers are paltry. NBCU’s telecast of the third Republican primary debate in November drew 7.5 million across platforms, and 6.9 viewers on NBC itself. A Fox News telecast in September drew 9.5 million across platforms and 6.69 million to Fox News Channel itself. The first in the series, also telecast across Fox News properties, drew 12.8 million, with 11million watching Fox News Channel.
The audience for each event has been lower than that of its corresponding primary debate in 2016. The difference? Candidate Donald Trump, now the former U.S. President, maintained an active presence in that cycle.