• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, September 29, 2023

The second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night drew 9.5 million total viewers, according to Nielsen — down 26% from 12.8 million for this year’s first debate, in August. 

Dominant frontrunner Donald Trump has skipped both of this election cycle’s debates to date. The first two GOP primary debates for the 2016 election, in which Trump participated, drew 23.9 million and 22.9 million viewers, respectively. 

The latest debate’s audience included 1.8 million viewers on the Fox Business channel, which co-hosted the event, 6.7 million on the Fox News channel, and 813,000 on linear Univision channels. Viewers in the 25-to-54 age demographic averaged 1.9 million across the channels.

AdImpact reported that about 30% of total viewership (which it estimated at 9.9 million) came through streaming. That included about 17% from Fox News and Univision streaming services, and 13% from YouTube and YouTube TV.   

Adobe Analytics reported that more than 22.8 million minutes were watched across Fox News digital properties, representing the Fox News livestream’s third-highest day of engagement year-to-date. The audience generated more than 115 million page views. 

Fox News’ livestream minutes were up 83%, video starts were up 65% and unique viewers were up 29% compared to the average 2023 weekday, and Fox News Digital’s overall video starts were up 22%, page views up 5%, and total minutes up 9%.

Fox reduced some of its ad rates for the second debate, although the first debate's audience exceeded expectations. 

The third GOP debate is scheduled for Nov. 8.