Fox News Hits Nearly 13M Viewers for GOP Debate 

Nearly 12.8 million people are estimated to have tuned into Fox News to watch the first Republican presidential debate on Wednesday.

The debate, co-moderated by Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier, featured eight GOP presidential contenders, who debated a wide array of topics for two-hours. GOP frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, was notably not in attendance.

Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace sent a memo to staffers celebrating the successful event, according to a Fox News report.

"Congratulations to our entire all-star team behind last night’s debate which was the highest rated non-sports cable telecast of the year with nearly 13 million viewers across all of our linear, digital, and streaming platforms," Scott and Wallace wrote. 

"Everyone’s immeasurably hard work over the last several months was on display throughout every facet of the phenomenal production and we are extremely proud of the staff who made everything possible down to the smallest of details. Most notably, our co-moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum did a fantastic job and made FOX News Media shine on every level," Scott and Wallace continued. "Last night was one of many reasons why we are the best team in the business."

Trump, who qualified for the debate, but decided to host his own counter-programming event at the same time as the debate on X, formerly known as Twitter with Tucker Carlson, racked up more than 150 million views overnight on the platform.

Out of the eight presidential hopefuls who appeared on the debate stage, former Vice President Mike Pence had the most speaking time at a little over 12 minutes, closely followed by biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.