Third GOP Debate Ratings Plummet on NBC in What Could Be Great News for Trump

The third 2024 Republican presidential primary debate hosted by NBC News and Salem Media Group on Wednesday night failed to rake in anywhere near the amount of viewers that the previous two debates did, which were held by Fox News and Fox Business Network.

NBC 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.

The significant drop in viewership is an undeniable boost to former President Donald Trump who has thumbed his nose at the Republican National Committee and vowed to skip all the debates. Trump instead hosted a rally in Florida, not too far from the debate in Miami. Many have questioned the relevance of having

GOP debates without Trump present as he is leading the field by a wide margin. The latest CNN poll had him up 44 points over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), 61% to 17% with the rest of the field trailing even more.

The NBC debate received high praise from journalists and pundits for its moderators, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, and Salem Radio’s Hugh Hewitt, who managed to keep control of the candidates and conduct the debate in a fair and professional way. Wednesday night’s debate only had five candidates on the debate stage, whereas the previous two debates had eight and seven, respectively.

NBC News did hype its streaming service viewership for the debate, noting Wednesday was “NBC News NOW’s largest primetime audience ever.” NBC News said that the debate had some 7.5 million total viewers when combining the data from the “network, Peacock, and other streaming and digital platforms.”