--- 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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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=12a8a679-6920-4c2f-9b13-ee2d8fb73334&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## 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. ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] The next Commander in Chief [00:05] is standing on this stage. On Tuesday night I watched story [00:08] time with Barack Obama and I gotta tell you, it sounded like [00:12] everything in the world was going amazing... Hillary [00:15] Clinton would be a national security disaster. She wouldn't [00:18] just be a disaster. Hilary Clinton is disqualified from being [00:21] Commander and Chief of the United States. Well Maria, [00:24] thank you for passing on that hit piece on the front page of [00:26] the New York Times. [ APPLAUSE ] And the entire New [00:29] York Times attack is that I disclosed that loan on one [00:33] filing with the United States Senate that was a public filing, [00:36] but it was not on a second filing with the FEC. Both of those [00:39] filings were public. Ted Cruz And yes I made a paper work [00:42] error disclosing it on one piece of paper instead of the other [00:45] but if that's the best hit the New York Times has got they [00:49] better go back to the well. On the issue of citizenship [00:51] Donald I'm not going to use your mother's birth [00:55] against you. Donald Trump >> In the last three polls I'm [00:57] beating you so you shouldn't misrepresent how well your [01:01] doing. I win I choose him as my vice presidential [01:05] candidate and the Democrats sue because we can't take [01:09] him along for the ride. I hate to interrupt this episode of [01:11] Court Tv [ LAUGH ] but the real. I like Chris Christie, but we [01:15] can not have a president of the United States that supports [01:18] common core. We cannot afford to have a president of the [01:21] United States that supports gun control [ APPLAUSE ] [01:23] South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is out of the race [01:26] but he joins us tonight in the audience Is [01:31] this America anymore? Do we still have standards? [01:35] You know, we have a war on virtually everything. Race [01:38] wars. gender wars, income wars. Every [01:42] war you can imagine, we have people at each other's [01:45] throats. And our strength is actually in our unity. I also want [01:49] to recognize the people in that church that showed the [01:53] grace of God, and the grace of forgiveness, and the mercy [01:55] they showed. [ APPLAUSE ] i don't know if any of us [02:00] could've done what they did, one after another, within 48 [02:02] hours of that tragedy taking place. The guns don't pull the [02:06] trigger, it's the people that pull the trigger [ APPLAUSE ] [02:08] And we have to find out what is going on. The Second [02:11] Amendment is not an option, because criminals don't buy [02:13] their guns from a gun show. And let me tell you, ISIS and [02:16] terrorists do not get their guns from a gun show. This [02:19] [ APPLAUSE ] Everyone understands that the values [02:23] in New York City are socially liberal, are pro- abortion, are [02:27] pro gay marriage, focus around money and the media. Not [02:32] a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm [02:36] just saying. [ LAUGH ] When the World Trade Center came [02:39] down I saw something that no place on [02:44] Earth could've handled more beautifully, more humanly [02:47] than New York and everybody in the world watched and [02:51] everybody in the world loved New York and loved New [02:54] Yorker's and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting [02:57] statement that Ted made. [ APPLAUSE ] I said from the [03:00] beginning That we should take no Syrian refugees of any [03:04] kind. If we do not know who you are and we do not know [03:07] why you are coming, when I am President, you are not [03:09] getting into the United States of America. [ APPLAUSE ] [03:11] This was a question on entitlements [ CROSSTALK ]. [03:12] [ APPLAUSE ] Oh, I'll ask the entitlement question [03:14] [ CROSSTALK ]. And the reason. No, you're. Already had [03:16] your chance, Mark, and you blew it. But here's the thing. If I [03:19] become President, I couldn't care less about my company. [03:23] It's peanuts. I have Ivanka and Eric and Don sitting there. [03:27] Run the company, kids. Have a good time. I'm gonna do it [03:29] for America. [ APPLAUSE ] I saw you on the Senate floor [03:32] flip your vote on crop insurance cuz they told you it would [03:34] help you in Iowa. And last week, we all saw you flip your [03:37] vote on ethanol in Iowa. [ APPLAUSE ] Iowa, for the same [03:40] reason. That is not consistent conservatism. That is political [03:43] calculation. This last back- and- forth between two sen -, [03:47] two back bench senators. You know, it explains why we [03:50] have the mess in Washington, D. C. We need a president [03:53] that will fix our immigration laws and stick with it, not bend [03:57] with the wind. ```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":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/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"}}] ```