NewsNation Debate Tops 4 Million Viewers

The fourth Republican debate, hosted by upstart cable news network NewsNation, drew 4.1 million total viewers and 852,000 viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic.

The centrist cable news channel event also aired on the CW network – both of which are owned by the same parent company, Nexstar Media Group. NewsNation brought in 1.6 million of the total and 350,000 in the demo, while CW accounted for 2.5 million of the total viewers and 500,000 in the demo.

The debate was hosted by Megyn Kelly, NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas, and Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Eliana Johnson.

“I think it’s an amazing opportunity and allows us to have more people fully sample the network and see who we are and what we’re doing,” NewsNation’s senior vice president of news and politics Cherie Grzech told the AP ahead of the debate — a strategy that appeared to pay off as the network scored its largest audience yet with the event.

NewsNation’s fourth primary debate, however, did continue a trend of decreasing viewership.

NBC, which hosted the third debate in November, brought in 6.86 million total viewers and 1.3 million viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic during the 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. debate, according to Nielsen. The first debate this cycle, hosted by Fox News in late August scored some 12.8 million total viewers and 2.8 million viewers in the demo. The second debate hosted by Fox Business Network in late September brought in 9.3 million total viewers and 1.89 million demo viewers.

Cable news networks continued to rake in viewers this week with major political events, including Fox’s Trump town hall and Rachel Maddow’s interview with Liz Cheney.

Last week’s Sean Hannity moderated debate between California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) scored some 4.75 million total viewers and notched up to 5.45 million with its west coast repeat – 1.05 million of those viewers were in the demo.

Fox also brought in solid numbers on Tuesday night with Hannity’s Trump town hall that raked in 3.2 million viewers and 375,000 demo viewers. The Trump town hall, which sparked a news cycle around Trump’s response to whether or not he would be a “dictator,” just beat MSNBC’s Maddow-Cheney interview on Monday. Cheney’s appearance on the left of center network scored 3.15 million total viewers and 249,000 demo viewers – a particularly strong showing that

led to MSNBC leading cable news in prime time on Monday.

Hannity’s Trump town hall boosted Fox’s Tuesday night prime time to a 2.6 million total viewer average, topping MSNBC’s 1.4 million total viewers and CNN’s 620,000.