Trumpless Debate Earns Higher Ratings Than Last GOP Debate That Included Trump

Townhall.com:

That headline is technically accurate: Last night's Trump-free Fox News forum pulled in roughly 12-13 million viewers, better than the 11 million or so who watched the Fox Business debate earlier this month, at which The Donald stood center stage.  Trump out, ratings up!  Well, sort of.  

The Des Moines debate was still the second-least watched GOP debate of the cycle (maybe third-least, including online live streams), and many Trump fans -- suddenly highly interested in nuance in context -- are pointing out that the lowest-rated one aired on FBN, which has a smaller footprint than Fox News or CNN nationwide.  

True enough, although FBN's November debate rated higher than three others, suggesting that viewership for these events has declined over time, with and without Trump. To wit: The Donald's social media army trying to pit last night's numbers (which dwarfed CNN and MSNBC's combined coverage of the billionaire's counter-programming rally) against Fox's August ratings bonanza, which is a ridiculous comparison.  

Fox and CNN's first debates garnered truly massive audiences, then each network experienced a drop-off of millions of viewers in its subsequent debate, as did Fox Business. TV Line probably has the most evenhanded headline I've seen, characterizing the ratings as "steady' in Trump's absence.  

The Trump campaign hilariously predicted that just "one or two million" Americans would tune into last night's proceedings.  Oops.  What's undoubtedly clear is that the current cycle's Republican debates are attracting much more attention than they did in 2012:

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