The FOX News Republican debate, which aired Thursday night, featuring the current Republican candidates and Sideshow Bob Donald Trump, garnered ENORMOUS RATINGS. We’re talking sports event style numbers.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
…a massive 24 million viewers tuned into Fox News between 9 and 11 p.m. ET. That easily makes it the most-watched cable news telecast in history. It also tops most marquee TV events, besting even coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Among the targeted demographic of adults 25-54, it averaged nearly 8 million viewers — another cable news record.
For a quick comparison of what a surge this is compared to the last election, the first Republican primary debate in 2011 drew a meager 3.2 million viewers to FNC. And its coverage of the final 2012 presidential debate between President Barack Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney reached 11.5 million viewers.
Over on Comedy Central, Jon Stewart’s final episode of The Daily Show, at 11 pm, delivered 3.5 million viewers and 1.8 million adults 18-49.
It’s Stewart’s second most-watched episode of all time (a 2008 episode with President Barack Obama as guest is #1). The finale also generated 233,000 tweets, making it the most social episode in the show’s history. By contrast, the final episode of the spin off, The Colbert Report, earned 2.5 million viewers. Via TVByTheNumbers