The debate, aired from 9-11 pm ET on Wednesday. Despite this achievement, former Fox anchor Tucker Carlson’s interview with Donald Trump on X gained an astonishing 238 million ‘views’ by 6 pm ET Thursday.
Donald Trump’s absence from the Fox News debate made no difference since the interview with Tucker Carlson on X captured more attention.
Trump boasted on Truth Social that the interview had surpassed the viewership of iconic moments in television history, such as Oprah Winfrey’s 1993 interview with Michael Jackson.
The remarkable success of the Trump interview has reignited debates about the future of traditional cable news networks in the face of competition from social media platforms like X.
With Fox News attracting 1.1 million daily viewers on average and 2.2 million during prime time, cable networks’ viewership is a fraction of social media’s engagement.
Critics argue that X’s view metrics may not accurately represent engagement, pointing out the lack of significant interactions such as likes, shares, and comments. It’s important to note that the view metrics differ between the platforms, with X counting a view each time a user scrolls past the video.
