Tuesday's CNN Republican debate was the third most-watched primary debate ever

(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

published 16 December 2015

The CNN Republican debate in Las Vegas Tuesday night earned an average of 18 million viewers, making it the third most-watched primary debate in history. It is topped only by the first two Republican debates of the 2016 election cycle: Fox News' averaged 25 million viewers in August and CNN's averaged 24 million in September. The following GOP debates on CNBC and Fox Business Network were relatively smaller, earning only 14 and 13.5 million viewers respectively.

Notably, more people are watching the debates than ever: CNN points out that a Fox News GOP debate held on the same day four years ago only had 6.7 million viewers on average, which was considered "very high" at the time.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.