NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: The first GOP debate was hosted by Fox News and moderated by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier.
After the debate, MacCallum took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to boast about Fox News’ viewership during the debate. However, MacCallum did not get the most positive response.
Instead, she and Fox News were both mocked, as people spoke about how they watched former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson and former President Donald Trump instead.
A few hours prior to the GOP debate, Tucker announced an interview with Trump, which was released five minutes before the debate. This interview which was a part of ‘Tucker on X’ amassed over 250 million views.
Martha MacCallum reveals Fox News viewership during GOP debate
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum shared an article by Mediaite and tweeted, “BREAKING: Fox News Republican Debate Scores Whopping 12.8 Million Viewers — Even Without Trump .”
The article states that this data was released by Nielsen ratings.
Mediaite also mentioned Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump’s interview, which amassed several views, but also added, “Of course, that’s not the whole story as “views” on Twitter are not remotely comparable to cable news viewers monitored by Nielsen.
Twitter’s view count includes any person (or bot) who simply scrolls past the tweet.”
Despite this clarification by Mediaite, the overwhelming response to MacCallum’s tweet pointed all fingers at Tucker and Trump, instead of Fox News.
Internet watched Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump instead of Fox News
In response to Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum, several people responded with the mention of Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump. One person wrote, “3% of the population watched the debate and 72% of the population watched Trump and Tucker!”
Another said, “That's it?” paired with a gif of Tucker laughing.
The praise for Tucker continued on MacCallum’s tweet as one person wrote, Bragging about 12.8 million viewers after u got smoked by @TuckerCarlson is like professing you have natural beauty yet wear 7 layers of makeup 😏”
Another user tweeted, “Trump on Tucker beat the hell out of your debate. Pathetic!”
Even MacCallum’s fans haven’t supported her on this tweet as one wrote, “Love you girl.. but this isn't anything to brag about as I'm pretty sure Tucker and Trump pulled millions more.”
People have also labeled the numbers a “fail” as one person tweeted, “Complete FAIL! 🤣🤣🤣🤣.”