The fourth Republican presidential primary debate that was moderated by NewsNation on Wednesday saw a huge drop-off in viewers, according to a Thursday assessment.
The event was the worst-rated in terms of viewership this far, with an estimated 1.6 million viewers. The debate also aired on CW, NewsNation’s sister network, drawing an additional 2.5 million viewers, giving a total audience of 4.1 million, Nielsen reported.
But even so, it was still the lowest-rated GOP debate thus far, Newsmax noted, citing the data.
In the recent NBC-hosted Republican debate, viewership reached 7.5 million. However, NewsNation experienced a significant decline of 68% in audience compared to Fox News’ initial GOP debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, where Fox garnered 12.8 million viewers, per Nielsen data.
NewsNation’s debate coverage, beginning with pre-debate anchoring by former CNN host Chris Cuomo and then moderator Elizabeth Vargas, failed to capture the attention of Republican viewers.
Former President Donald Trump, who has expressed dissatisfaction with what he perceives as the Republican National Committee’s outreach primarily to adversarial media for debate hosting, opted not to participate in the NewsNation debate as well as the previous forums. Despite this, his lead as the GOP front-runner has seen an increase.
It’s worth noting that Trump took part in the initial Republican debate of the 2016 election cycle, attracting a record-breaking 24 million viewers. NewsNation’s Wednesday broadcast saw an 82% drop in audience from that record-setting debate.
Newsmax added: The liberal NewsNation channel, formerly WGN America, has been struggling since its inception in 2021. It drew just 60,000 viewers for a total day in 2023 — down 35% from last year — making it the lowest-rated cable news channel.
NewsNation, under the ownership of TV giant Nexstar, had anticipated that the GOP debate would ignite interest among viewers and boost ratings. However, according to many pundits, the network’s liberal prime-time hosts, including Cuomo, Dan Abrams, and Ashleigh Banfield, are not succeeding in attracting Republican and independent viewers.
The RNC, along with its chair Ronna McDaniel, has faced criticism for granting broadcast rights for the debates to networks perceived as hostile to Trump, including Fox, NBC, and now NewsNation, Newsmax noted further.
