NEW YORK: Even without lead contender Donald Trump, an estimated 12.8 million people watched the first Republican presidential primary debate on two Fox News television channels and its streaming service.
There seemed little evidence that Trump’s attempt to counterprogram the debate, by appearing in an online interview with Tucker Carlson at about the same time on Wednesday, appreciably affected the number of people who were interested in checking out the eight alternatives.
The viewership was a little more than half the 24 million people who watched Trump appear in his first presidential debate in August 2015, the Nielsen company said. But it outpaced a January 2016 GOP candidates debate on Fox that Trump also skipped and was seen by 12.5 million people
Television is a vastly different world than it was eight years ago, with streaming more established and thousands of cable customers cutting the cord. The most-watched program seen live last week on either broadcast or cable TV was a “60 Minutes” rerun on CBS that reached 5.3 million viewers.
While ex-Fox host Carlson boasted Wednesday that his streamed interview would get a “far larger” audience than the televised debate — and Trump claiming that the interview exceeded the Super Bowl in audience — there’s no reliable way of checking that.
X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, said late Thursday afternoon that the tweet of Carlson’s interview show had 236.7 million views. But that’s a count of how many times someone scrolled by Carlson’s interview with Trump in their feeds — even if they didn’t open up the post to see what was said.
If you happened to scroll by the post a dozen different times, that counts as a dozen views.
Public interaction numbers were smaller: There were some 55,000 comments attached to the interview, with about 200,000 people saying they liked it.
The television viewership figure is an estimate of how many people were watching the debate at any given minute. The debate was simulcast on Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network.
Moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the two-hour debate barely mentioned Trump until it was halfway through. Then Baier said he wanted to take a brief moment to talk about “the elephant not in the room” — Trump and his four criminal indictments.
The reluctance to talk about the topic was evident, but the 10 minutes when it was discussed included some of the debate’s more electric moments.
Fox News reaches 12.8 million viewers for GOP primary debate, despite Donald Trump’s absence
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Fox News reaches 12.8 million viewers for GOP primary debate, despite Donald Trump’s absence
- The number outpaced a January 2016 GOP candidates debate on Fox that Trump also skipped and was seen by 12.5 million people
- The television viewership figure is an estimate of how many people were watching the debate at any given minute
Paris exhibition marks 200 years of Le Figaro and the enduring power of the press
- The exhibition celebrated the bicentennial of Le Figaro, offering visitors a rare opportunity to step inside the newspaper’s vast historical archive
PARIS: One of France’s most influential newspapers marked a major milestone this month with a landmark exhibition beneath the soaring glass nave of the Grand Palais, tracing two centuries of journalism, literature and political debate.
Titled 1826–2026: 200 years of freedom, the exhibition celebrated the bicentennial of Le Figaro, offering visitors a rare opportunity to step inside the newspaper’s vast historical archive. Held over three days in mid-January, the free exhibition drew large crowds eager to explore how the title has both chronicled and shaped modern French history.
More than 300 original items were displayed, including historic front pages, photographs, illustrations and handwritten manuscripts. Together, they charted Le Figaro’s evolution from a 19th-century satirical publication into a leading national daily, reflecting eras of revolution, war, cultural change and technological disruption.
The exhibition unfolded across a series of thematic spaces, guiding visitors through defining moments in the paper’s past — from its literary golden age to its role in political debate and its transition into the digital era. Particular attention was paid to the newspaper’s long association with prominent writers and intellectuals, underscoring the close relationship between journalism and cultural life in France.
Beyond the displays, the program extended into live journalism. Public editorial meetings, panel discussions and film screenings invited audiences to engage directly with editors, writers and media figures, turning the exhibition into a forum for debate about the future of the press and freedom of expression.
Hosted at the Grand Palais, the setting itself reinforced the exhibition’s ambition: to place journalism firmly within the country’s cultural heritage. While the exhibition has now concluded, the bicentennial celebrations continue through special publications and broadcasts, reaffirming Le Figaro’s place in France’s public life — and the enduring relevance of a free and questioning press in an age of rapid change.
