This Wednesday experienced the lowest viewership in this election cycle’s GOP debates, attracting just 1.6 million viewers. This figure increased to a total of 4.1 million when factoring in viewers from the affiliated CW network, as reported by Nielsen.
This turnout was significantly lower than other GOP debates this year. For example, NBC’s Republican debate last month garnered 7.5 million viewers. Comparatively, NewsNation saw a 68% decline in viewership from the first GOP debate of this cycle on Fox News, which attracted an audience of 12.8 million.
Hosted by Chris Cuomo with Elizabeth Vargas as the moderator, the NewsNation debate failed to capture the interest of a significant portion of the Republican audience. Notably, former President Donald Trump, who has been critical of the Republican National Committee’s choice of debate hosts, did not participate in this or previous debates. Despite his absence, Trump’s lead in the GOP race has grown.
Trump’s participation in the first Republican debate of the 2016 election cycle had drawn a record 24 million viewers, a stark contrast to the 82% drop in viewership for NewsNation’s recent broadcast.
NewsNation, which rebranded from WGN America in 2021, has struggled with ratings since its launch. In 2023, the network averaged only 60,000 viewers per day, a 35% decrease from the previous year, making it the lowest-rated cable news channel.
Owned by Nexstar, NewsNation had high hopes that hosting the GOP debate would boost its viewership. However, the channel’s lineup of hosts like Cuomo, Dan Abrams, and Ashleigh Banfield appears not to have resonated with Republican and independent viewers.
The debate also featured Megyn Kelly and Eliana Johnson, the Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Free Beacon, alongside Vargas.
The Republican National Committee and its chair, Ronna McDaniel, have faced criticism for granting broadcasting rights for the debates to networks perceived as unfriendly to Trump, including Fox, NBC, and now NewsNation. In the third debate held in Miami, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy openly criticized McDaniel’s management of the debate arrangements and called for her resignation.
