• by Wayne Friedman , December 16, 2015

CNN’s second Republican debate pulled in 18 million viewers -- a bit lower than its first Republican debate -- but slightly higher advertising revenue than the first event.

Some $3.6 million was taken in for the Republican presidential debate programming, according to iSpot.tv -- up from the $2.3 million level for the Sept. 16 debate, which grabbed a big 23 million viewers.

Both these viewership results were down versus the high -- and surprising -- 25 million viewer score during the first Republican Presidential Debate on Fox News Channel in August.

Fox Business News, a smaller distributed cable network, also ran a Republican presidential debate in November -- taking in 13.5 million. Before that, NBCUniversal’s business network CNBC, pulled in 14 million for a Republican event.

CNN’s Democratic debate in October averaged a Nielsen 16 million viewers.

Donald Trump, the top Republican presidential candidate, according to many polls, requested that CNN pay him $5 million to appear in the Dec. 15 Republican debate -- money he would donate to charity.

CNN turned him down -- as it had for the first debate it aired in September, when Trump wanted $10 million. Trump believes the big debate TV audiences are due to his appearances.