While GOP elites may have breathed a sigh of relief at Thursday night's more restrained Republican presidential debate, television networks might not be quite so pleased with the change of tone. CNN announced Friday that only 11.9 million viewers watched the debate Thursday night — less than the 14.5 million who tuned in for the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory.
That marks a 30 percent drop off in viewership from last week's combative debate that drew 16.9 million viewers — making Thursday's debate, which Donald Trump dubbed "elegant," the second smallest of the year's seven GOP events in terms of viewership. Still, Republicans' average viewership for debates far surpasses Democrats': While Republicans have averaged about 13 million viewers for their seven debates, Democrats' five events have only averaged 6.82 million.
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