A this point, barring some sort of catastrophe, death, or imprisonment, it seems almost a lock that former President Donald Trump is going to be the Republican Party nominee to take on President Joe Biden next year, which might be one plausible reason that folks seem completely and utterly uninterested in anything the other candidates in the race have to say, as it appears nobody is tuning in to watch the candidates debate each other.
In fact, according to Newsmax, the fourth GOP primary debate, which was hosted by NewsNation on Wednesday evening, had the worst ratings out of all the debates put on thus far, with the newer television news network only drawing in 1.6 million viewers.
Here are more details from the report:
The debate also aired on NewsNation’s sister network CW, drawing an additional 2.5 million viewers, giving a total audience of 4.1 million, Nielsen reported.
Even with the combined number, the NewsNation debate had the lowest rating of any network hosting a GOP debate this year. Just last month, the NBC-hosted Republican debate drew 7.5 million viewers. NewsNation also witnessed a huge drop of 68% in audience from Fox News’ first GOP debate held in Milwaukee on Aug. 23. Fox drew 12.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
The NewsNation debate coverage — starting with pre-debate anchoring by Chris Cuomo, followed by moderator Elizabeth Vargas — did little to interest Republican viewers.
Trump has stated numerous times that the Republican National Committee is only reaching out to media outlets that are hostile to conservatives to host the events, which is one of several reasons he’s decided not to participate in them. The former president skilled the NewsNation event, along with all the others, while watching his lead over the other candidates continue to rise. It’s unprecedented really. The guy isn’t playing ball and as a result, people love him even more. It’s that anti-establishment streak. Trump is smart and understands politics on a level most people simply don’t. Or maybe they do but they don’t act on it. He does.
“Trump participated in the first Republican debate of the 2016 election cycle, drawing a record 24 million viewers. NewsNation’s Wednesday broadcast saw an 82% drop in audience from that record-setting debate. The liberal NewsNation channel, formerly WGN American, 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,” Newsmax continued.
Again, the main reason for lack of viewership is that it just seems pointless. Trump is way too far ahead for these folks to catch at this point, even though we are still a ways out from the actual primary. On top of that, there’s the fact that we already know where these candidates stand on issues as they’ve all been active on the political scene for some time. We know what their policies look like. They aren’t saying anything we didn’t already know.
Time is a precious commodity. Why waste it watching people talk over each other and say things they’ve been saying for years?
"*" indicates required fields
