CNN’s latest Republican debate grabbed 11.9 million total viewers last night, with 3.7 million coming from the key 25-54 demographic.
That all-in number means Thursday’s event pulled the second-lowest eyeball count of any GOP debate throughout the 2016 election season thus far. The only one it actually beat was Fox Business Network’s version on Jan. 14, which drew 11.1 million total viewers.
The Democratic debates have pulled in far fewer people this cycle.
Across primetime last night, CNN was No. 1 with an average of 9.4 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Fast National data.
Fox News had 1.8 million, MSNBC settled for 882,000.
In the main demo, CNN grabbed 2.9 million viewers; Fox News had 334,000; MSNBC got 219,000.
Livestreams reached 1.9 million yesterday, peaking at 10 p.m. ET with 623,000 concurrent streams across multiple digital products.
Thursday’s debate was moderated by CNN anchor and Chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper. Questioners included CNN Chief Political correspondent Dana Bash, Washington Times Political correspondent Stephen Dinan and Salem Radio host Hugh Hewitt.
On Sunday, CNN will host the Democratic candidates in a Town Hall live from Columbus, Ohio.