--- title: Republican Debate; TV Ratings Were Lowest of Trump-Era description: Some 11 million viewers tuned into Thursday's Republican presidential debate—lowest in the Trump era, but still not bad historically. canonical: https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T22:22:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:18.506Z article:section: Politics og:title: This Was the Least-Watched Republican Debate Yet og:description: But still higher than the average audience for the Democratic debates og:url: https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d4ea1f37af93a6f/69887967bc6cfc31403db460/gettyimages-505039282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2946 og:image:height: 1657 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Was the Least-Watched Republican Debate Yet twitter:description: But still higher than the average audience for the Democratic debates twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d4ea1f37af93a6f/69887967bc6cfc31403db460/gettyimages-505039282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Was the Least-Watched Republican Debate Yet > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes [Watch (HLS stream): FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/43Jv4tOR.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2016-01-15. GOP DEBATE 011416: The FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 10:22 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Ohio Governor John Kasich, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ben Carson and Jeb Bush participate in the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center on January 14, 2016 in North Charleston, South Carolina. The sixth Republican debate is held in two parts, one main debate for the top seven candidates, and another for three other candidates lower in the current polls. Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Ohio Governor John Kasich, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ben Carson and Jeb Bush participate in the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center on January 14, 2016 in North Charleston, South Carolina. The sixth Republican debate is held in two parts, one main debate for the top seven candidates, and another for three other candidates lower in the current polls. Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 10:22 PM UTC Some 11 million viewers tuned into [Thursday’s Republican presidential debate](http://time.com/4182219/what-happened-at-the-republican-debate/)—the lowest total in the “Trump era,” but still not bad historically. Though the ratings were lower than in the 2015 debates, they look better when compared to previous election cycles, according to ratings data from Nielsen. In the 2011-2012 campaign season, Republican debates averaged around 5 million viewers. Democratic debates have seen a lower average than Republican ones, of about 10.5 million viewers in 2015; that may be symptomatic of the more civil tone of the Democratic contest, with fewer candidates and less fireworks. But it may also be due to the [unorthodox scheduling](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/opinion/campaign-stops/the-invisible-democratic-debates.html) of some of the debates, including a [little-watched one](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/latest-dem-debate-lowest-ratings-year-article-1.2471937) on the Saturday night before Christmas. Even if Thursday’s numbers were lower than usual for the Republicans, the debate was still popular online. Some 6.4 million people in America saw at least one of some 1.2 million tweets sent about the debate on Thursday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/"},"headline":"This Was the Least-Watched Republican Debate Yet","datePublished":"2016-01-15T22:22:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:18.506Z","description":"But still higher than the average audience for the Democratic debates","url":"https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/","keywords":["Debates","Tech","republicans","2016 Election","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d4ea1f37af93a6f/69887967bc6cfc31403db460/gettyimages-505039282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d4ea1f37af93a6f/69887967bc6cfc31403db460/gettyimages-505039282.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston","caption":"GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/","name":"This Was the Least-Watched Republican Debate Yet"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes","description":"GOP DEBATE 011416: The FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/43Jv4tOR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-15T05:22:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/43Jv4tOR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/","duration":"PT3M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4183224/republican-debate-low-ratings-january/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```