GOP debate: Early numbers suggest record audience

[still_one]

Early overnight Nielsen ratings suggest that Thursday's Republican debate was not just the most-watched primary debate in history -- it may have been twice as big as the previous record-holder.
The debate on Fox News had a 16.0 household rating between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., according to Nielsen.

Translation: 16% of United States homes with TV sets tuned in.
Fox News usually has 1% or 2% of the household audience.
For the sake of comparison, the highest-rated Republican primary debates in 2011 and 2012 were watched by approximately 5% of households.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/07/media/gop-debate-fox-news-ratings/index.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. Trump rolled Fox and proved to be great for business

Ailes will cave; kid-glove treatment coming up.

[spanone]

2. everybody loves a clown.

[madinmaryland]

7. 17 of them!!

[think]

3. Meanwhile Democrats sit and wait.....

[C_U_L8R]

4. Interesting, it won the Sit-Com segment

As someone here wisely said - it was Fox's rebuttal to America's Got Talent.

[KinMd]

5. You know why the Democrats will have less viewers?

Because you aren't going to see crazy. Bernie, Hillary, Jim Webb, et al will disagree but they'll be sane adults. And none of them will tweet about how mean they were treated

[OffWithTheirHeads]

6. Last night was the first time EVER that Fux was on my T.V.

I'm hoseing it down as we speak.

[eissa]

8. One of many reasons why I didn't tune in

Didn't want to contribute to the ratings, plus my desire to maintain my sanity.