The ratings of Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson’s interview with former President Donald Trump crushed Fox News’ broadcast of the Republican primary debate Wednesday night.
Trump skipped the primary debate over his dislike of Fox News’ coverage of him and his major lead in the 2024 presidential primary polls. His 46-minute interview with Carlson counter-programmed Fox News by beginning to air five minutes before the primary debate started.
The interview reeled in over 239 million views as of Thursday evening on Carlson’s Twitter account. The primary debate trailed the interview by garnering 12.8 million total views, though it exceeded the public’s expectations given Trump was not in attendance, according to Mediaite.
The debate raked in 2.82 million total viewers among the key 25-54 demographic, according to Mediaite. The debate garnered a total of 13 million when combining its broadcasting on Fox Nation, Fox Business and Fox News Digital, reportedly making it the “highest-rated non-sports cable telecast of 2023 and topping more than 70% of all presidential primary debates in the last two cycles (2016 and 2020),” Mediate noted.
The number of recorded views is likely not an accurate count of how many people truly watched the interview between Carlson and Trump. Twitter counts a user simply scrolling past a post as a view, making it difficult to compare with cable news.
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
Trump celebrated the interview’s viewership in a Truth Social post Thursday. He predicted to Carlson that the interview would have higher viewership ratings than the debate. (RELATED: ‘Savage Animals’: Trump Talks Indictments, Political Assassinations With Tucker During GOP Debate)
“The Tucker Carlson Interview with me was a BLOCKBUSTER,” Trump wrote. “Could hit 200,000,000 Views, and more! Thank you! I hope it was enjoyed by everyone.”
The first 2016 presidential debate reached a record 24 million total views with Trump in attendance and the other debates in that election cycle averaged about 15 million viewers, Mediaite reported. The January 28, 2016, debate that Trump boycotted garnered 12.5 million views.
The interview raised a number of bombshell topics, notably when Trump told Carlson that he believed convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein likely committed suicide in his jail cell in 2019. He also accused his political opponents of being “savage animals” while pondering whether they would be willing to kill him.