(Reuters) -The first U.S. Republican presidential primary debate was viewed on Fox News on Wednesday night by 11.1 million people, according to the Nielsen ratings agency, falling well shy of the record set in 2015.
An additional 1.7 million people watched the prime-time debate on Fox Business Network, according to Fox, bringing the total audience to 12.8 million.
Eight of the top Republican presidential contenders took part in the forum, the first debate of the 2024 primary election cycle. However, the debate lacked the audience draw of the candidate leading the field, former President Donald Trump, who did not participate.
Trump opted instead to sit for a pre-recorded interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, which was posted Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The 46-minute conversation with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson drew more than 74 million views, according to statistics on the platform.
It is unclear, however, how long visitors to the site watched the pre-recorded event. X view counts include anyone who scrolled past the video or watched for just a few seconds, as well as those who viewed the entire interview. Some viewers could be counted twice if they watched the video at different times or on different devices.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
