Former U.S. President Donald Trump's interview with Tucker Carlson on Elon Musk's X platform garnered 74 million views in under an hour, while Fox News, a unit of Fox Corporation FOXA FOX, attracted less than 13 million in the first Republican debate.
However, there's more to these numbers than meets the eye.
What Happened: Trump’s decision to bypass a Republican primary debate on Fox News in favor of a 46-minute interview with Carlson on Musk’s X, on the surface, appears to surpass all expectations, as the GOP debate on the channel not only received backlash for being "messy" but attracted only 12.8 million views.
But here's the twist.
While the viewership of this year's initial debate paled in comparison to the first GOP debate in August 2015 (At the time, Trump engaged in verbal clashes with fellow candidates, and the moderator, Megyn Kelly, reported Politico), which attracted an audience of 24 million viewers, it did, in fact, beat the 12.5 million viewers received during Fox News' last primary debate in January 2016 in Iowa, which also did not include Trump.
On top of that, the tweet view metric, which currently stands at 262.9 million, might have less value, as it merely counts the number of people who viewed the tweet, including those who merely scrolled past it. Twitter, now rebranded as X, explains that anyone logged into on the platform, who views a post is counted as a view, even if they scrolled past it multiple times.
While specific video view numbers from platform X are not publicly disclosed, Mashable reported that as of Aug. 24, 2023, 14.8 million individuals had watched at least 2 seconds of the Trump interview.However, only a small fraction of this audience likely watched a substantial portion of the 46-minute video. This indicates that the Trump interview was seen by significantly fewer people compared to the Fox News debate, which recorded 12.8 million average concurrent viewers according to Nielsen.
According to a Fox News representative, who cited Steve Hasker, CEO of Thomson Reuters and former president of Nielsen in 2015, the metrics are different because of the way TV and digital platforms measure viewership. TV relies on the average-minute audience, while digital platforms count each view, even if for just one minute or one second, leading to an uneven comparison between the two mediums.
This time, while Trump’s absence from the Fox News debate raised eyebrows, his conversation with conservative commentator Carlson generated an online frenzy. During the interview with Carlson, the former President, who has emerged as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race, boldly said, “We’ll get bigger ratings using this crazy forum that you are using than probably the debate.”
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, was once a niche social media platform, but it has evolved into a digital juggernaut, capturing the attention of millions worldwide. The 46-minute video has now reached 262.9 million views, with counts encompassing users who briefly scrolled past and those who watched the entire interview.
Despite his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Trump currently holds a strong position as the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Meanwhile, Carlson is actively working to regain his audience following the cancellation of his highly-rated show on Fox News in April, a decision that came in the wake of a damaging defamation lawsuit related to unsubstantiated election fraud claims.
Why It’s Important: As the most-watched cable news network in the U.S., according to Statista, Fox News has long been a dominant force in shaping political discourse. The Aug. 23 night debate on the channel attracted more than 2.8 million viewers among those aged 25 to 54. It was the year's most-watched non-sports cable event in terms of total viewers.
However, the alleged massive online viewership of Trump’s interview prompted questions about whether the network’s influence has been waning. Furthermore, the debate’s opening format, criticized for its song choice, fueled speculation about the network’s grasp on engaging a diverse audience.
The upcoming Republican presidential debate is slated for Sept. 27 at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, and will broadcast on Fox Business.
Some elements of this story were previously reported by Benzinga and it has been updated.
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