Who Won the Ratings Race: Fox News or Donald Trump?

By Brian Stelter. Donald Trump’s counter-programming stunt succeeded in stealing viewers from Fox News’ Republican presidential debate.

Thursday night marked the second lowest rated GOP debate of the season. And Trump was the most-talked-about candidate without even being there.

Trump, who had refused to attend the debate, showed off his ratings magnetism by depriving Fox of it . . .

But Trump’s rivals, like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, still reached a big audience by debating, which suggests that there are some limits to Trump’s power.

Practically speaking, there is no way Trump’s event could have out-rated the debate. But ratings experts said Trump did appear to take a chunk out of Fox’s audience. (Read more from “Who Won the Ratings Race: Fox News or Donald Trump?” HERE)

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Debate Without Trump Gets Better Ratings Than Last Debate With Trump

By John McCormack. Donald Trump’s campaign manager predicted that Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate on Fox News would only get “about 2 million” viewers because Trump refused to show up. In fact, “Fox News likely had 11 million to 13 million viewers for the debate,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reports.

Thursday’s debate ended up getting higher ratings than the the last debate in which Trump participated. “Fox’s Trump-less debate had an 8.4 household rating, according to early Nielsen data from so-called metered markets,” reports CNN’s Stelter. (Read more from “Debate Without Trump Gets Better Ratings Than Last Debate With Trump” HERE)

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