FNC New Hampshire debate: Ratings…
Last night’s New Hampshire Republican debate on FNC was the most watched debate of the 2007 election season. 3.1 million viewers tuned in; 854,000 in the 25-54 Demo. FNC’s debate last night beat all of ABC’s, CNN’s and MSNBC’s previous debates this year based on Total Viewers. The above numbers are Live but the Live+SD numbers are even higher.
And this is what the Democratic party is missing out on when its candidates shoot themselves in the foot by ducking FNC debates…
Well, 3.1 million total viewers seems pretty good. But, what about 854K in the all important key demo? Didn’t Star Jones/LKL get higher than that?
Comment by Terance — September 6, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
only reason why people watched this time would be because Of: Fred Thompsom, the Senitor Graig Saga.
atleast stop putting on debates every 2 weeks cause its the same thing every time, only thing diffrent would be the two things i mentioned already
Comment by don — September 6, 2007 @ 5:48 pm
And this is what the Democratic party is missing out on when its candidates shoot themselves in the foot by ducking FNC debates…
Of course Fox viewers watch the GOP debate. Would they watch the Dems debate in equal or greater numbers? unclear.
Comment by Arthur — September 6, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
The one thing I’ve read and never understood in regards to the rationale for Democrats not going on Fox for a debate is…”well, Fox viewers are Republicans, so they would be debating to an audience that wouldn’t vote for them anyway.” This is nonsense, of course, because people will watch the party/candidates no matter what network they are on. That and let’s say for the sake of argument that all Fox viewers are conservatives…there are many disenfranchised Republicans out there. Wouldn’t the Democrats want to expand the field by stating their case to these people?
As for the ratings, I think the fact that we have past labor day and people are going to start to pay attention is a big factor in this as well. Nevertheless, solid numbers.
In regards to the debate itself - they need to raise the amount of time candidates are allowed to answer a question…30 seconds on what you’d do in regards to Iraq is not enough. Well, that and the moderators should have pressed the candidates who ducked some questions and stuck with their stump speeches (Giuliani sounded like a broken record).
Comment by FishOil — September 6, 2007 @ 6:09 pm
#2 - The first debate that Fred Thompson appears at is going to pull real strong ratings….I’m sure there are many people who will want to see what he has to say and how he will distinguish himself.
Comment by FishOil — September 6, 2007 @ 6:12 pm
FishOil, I agree with point #4. I am not a Republican or a regular Fox viewer and I tuned in for the GOP debate (as well as debates on other networks). The Fox moderators (Hume, Goler and Wallace) did not cut the GOP hopefuls any slack in either debate.
Comment by Goldfish — September 6, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
This whole Dem boycott of debates is just a B.S. ploy to appeal to the Nutroots of Daily Kos.Dem underground and Huffington Post.
I would love for someone to directly ask John Edwards who started this how he feels he was mistreated by FOX on the over 30 times he appeared (last time being just Jan.)or can point to how the last Dem debate hosted by FOX in ‘04 was unfair to the Dems.
Comment by mlong — September 6, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
What I liked is that there were no soft questions like Bathtub Boy gave to the democrats.
Comment by Tom P — September 6, 2007 @ 6:51 pm
I found last night’s debate to be the best thus far. I enjoy the FNC format and I’m glad to see that the ratings were strong.
Comment by Objective Analyst — September 6, 2007 @ 7:09 pm
The demo actually works well as people over 54 tend to vote in greater numbers than the under 55 set.
Comment by Don Surber — September 6, 2007 @ 8:08 pm
“And this is what the Democratic party is missing out”
They are not missing out on anything. The people who watched the FOX debate are right wing lunatics who listen to Rush and O’Reilly and would never in a million years vote for a Democrat. So it would be a total waste of time for Democrats to hold a debate at FOX “newS”.
Comment by MikeD — September 6, 2007 @ 10:29 pm
and did we expect anything different. the repubs never fail to flock to their channel.
Comment by Me — September 6, 2007 @ 10:46 pm
“And this is what the Democratic party is missing out”
Acutually, this is in the Democrat’s plan. When you’re all flash and little substance, you avoid forums where this will be revealed. You also avoid places where they expect more than the usual “bumper sticker” type of answer.
Comment by Bill — September 7, 2007 @ 8:57 am
The Dems need to get over their fear of Fox and participate in a debate. I’m ashamed of the party’s ill will and cowardice.
Comment by Goldfish — September 7, 2007 @ 9:31 am
Would love to see the Republicans play up the fact that their Democratic rivals live in fear of Fox.
Comment by Liz — September 7, 2007 @ 10:13 am
I’ve watched almost every debate on each of the networks and would assert that, despite the claims of the Democratic candidates, the FNC debate team comes off as the least partisan of the bunch. I actually like some of the Democratic candidates but their unwillingness to appear in an FNC sponsored debate leaves me less than impressed. As was stated above, the moderators didn’t pull any punches and allowed the candidates to actually debate each other, not just answer directly to the moderators.
Comment by Caufield — September 7, 2007 @ 10:53 am
“MikeD” and “Me” I was wondering where I’ll be taking my next vacation… and since you guys can obviously predict the future, and figure out what people are doing without having any actual evidence in front of you (ie only Republicans watch FNC, and that no FNC watcher would ever vote for a Democrat)… I figure you’re psychic, and you could help me plan my trip.
Also, if you could give me the lotto numbers, I’d appreciate that too.
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 7, 2007 @ 11:32 am