CNN will host the Democrat debate Tuesday night in Las Vegas, but the network does not expect to come close to the blockbuster ratings of the last GOP debate.
With a smaller field and just two of the candidates — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — polling above 9 percent, executives for the news organization said they anticipate the numbers to fall short of the second debate’s numbers.
“Viewership for the first two GOP debates was an anomaly in a highly unusual Republican nomination cycle,” CNN Washington Bureau Chief Sam Feist told Politico. “While I won’t predict ratings for this debate, we expect the audience to be significantly smaller.”
The 2008 Democratic debates drew in 8.3 million viewers, the New York Times reports, while CNN drew in nearly 23 million for its GOP debate last month.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump told “Fox and Friends” he thinks the network needs him to garner the success it saw the last time around
“I think people are going to turn it on for a couple of minutes and then fall asleep,” Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump told the Fox News hosts. “I don’t think they’ll do badly, because there is a curiosity factor. I don’t think they’re going to do great, and I think a lot of people are going to turn off after a little while.”
Many have speculated the Democratic field will continue to grow, Vice President Joe Biden declined to take part of the debate and said he is in no rush to make a decision.
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