--- title: Republican Debate Ratings Put CNN Broadcast in 3rd Place description: An average of 18 million viewers tuned in canonical: https://time.com/4151890/republican-debate-ratings/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T18:29:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:26:22.467Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Republican Debate Was the 3rd Most-watched Ever og:description: An average of 18 million viewers tuned in og:url: https://time.com/4151890/republican-debate-ratings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb1f85cc93490d22/698875a70a4a22eabb9c7893/gop-debate.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Las Vegas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Republican Debate Was the 3rd Most-watched Ever twitter:description: An average of 18 million viewers tuned in twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb1f85cc93490d22/698875a70a4a22eabb9c7893/gop-debate.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Republican Debate Was the 3rd Most-watched Ever by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 16, 2015 6:29 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Jeb Bush participate during the CNN presidential debate at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Jeb Bush participate during the CNN presidential debate at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 16, 2015 6:29 PM UTC Tuesday night’s [Republican debate](http://time.com/4151005/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-cnn-jeb-bush/?xid=homepage) was likely the [third most-watched presidential primary debate of all time](http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/16/media/gop-debate-ratings/index.html), with an average of 18 million viewers. The broadcast beat GOP debates from October and November, which each saw about 14 million viewers on average, but came in behind the current record-holders, according to CNN: Fox News’ August debate, which averaged 25 million, and CNN’s September debate, which averaged 24 million. The numbers reflect a big spike in interest since the last presidential election: On Dec. 15, 2011, a Fox News Republican primary debate averaged only 6.7 million viewers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4151890/republican-debate-ratings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4151890/republican-debate-ratings/"},"headline":"The Republican Debate Was the 3rd Most-watched Ever","datePublished":"2015-12-16T18:29:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:26:22.467Z","description":"An average of 18 million viewers tuned in","url":"https://time.com/4151890/republican-debate-ratings/","keywords":["Debates","Election 2016"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb1f85cc93490d22/698875a70a4a22eabb9c7893/gop-debate.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdb1f85cc93490d22/698875a70a4a22eabb9c7893/gop-debate.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Las Vegas","caption":"GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Las Vegas","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—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/4151890/republican-debate-ratings/","name":"The Republican Debate Was the 3rd Most-watched Ever"}}]}] ```