Fox News' latest debate holds the spot for the second lowest rated debate for this season. Trump's representatives point out that there is compelling ratings evidence that suggests his goal to steal viewers from the network may have been accomplished.
It's true that 12.5 million viewers tuned into Fox's GOP debate on January 28th between 9 and 11pm according to Nielsen, despite Donald Trump's physical absence. Although, he was the most talked about candidate by far. In fact, Fox News anchor and Trump's on-air rival, Megyn Kelly, started the debate off by asking for Ted Cruz's opinion on his not being there, "So let's get this started, Senator Cruz, before we get to the issues, let's address the elephant not in the room tonight. Donald Trump has chosen not to attend this evening's presidential debate. What message do you think that sends to the voters of Iowa?" Trump felt disrespected and attacked by Kelly during the first Fox GOP debate of the season last August where the network averaged 25 million viewers, double the amount of the latest debate without Trump.
A Twitter poll reported that 36% of #GOPDebate candidate mentions were about Trump with Ted Cruz's trailing behind at 16% and Marco Rubio's at 13%.
However, Google data shows that "debate live stream" was search 170% more than "Trump live stream" the night of the debate.
According to the Washington Post the republican debates have become more popular than ever in part because of the "allure of Trump's star power and unpredictable candidacy," and television networks have taken advantage of it by selling advertisements for their debates at a high premium. To which Trump said "Why should I be making Fox any money?" and skipped the debate to host his own event in Iowa to raise money for the veterans instead. CNN and MSNBC, two cable channels, showed parts of Trump's fundraising event throughout the night which ratings show had a combined viewership of 2.7 million with CNN averaging 1.7 million and MSNBC 1 million. There were smaller outlets that televised and streamed Trump's event but the ratings on those are unavailable.
Executive Vice President of Ad Sales for Fox News and Fox News Business told The Wall Street Journal that “The debate is completely sold out. No rates have changed and there are no advertisers who have backed out. Prices don’t change once the orders have been placed.” and that he doesn’t anticipate having to give free ad time, or “make-goods,” to advertisers who locked in audience guarantees. “I think a lot of people are going to tune-in,” he said. “If we have advertisers who have a problem we’ll address it.” He added that advertisers with guarantees are “well ahead of the game,” since past debates have had higher-than-expected viewership"(WSJ).
Still, Fox was happy with the turnout touting that the Trumpless debate had 1.5 million viewers more than the debate on Fox Business two weeks ago with Trump. However, Fox Business is harder to find on cable and usually has significantly lower ratings than the mainstream station of the network.
CNN Money points out that a more fair comparison would be to the debate CNN hosted in December, since CNN and Fox News have similar reach into cable homes; that debate had 18 million viewers, much higher than the Trumpless one.
There is still no getting around the fact that Trump may have overestimated his power over the ratings prior to the debate, "Maybe Fox was gonna have a 20 or 25 million person debate, but without Mr. Trump's participation, I think they might have a one to two million person debate," Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said. Trump himself took to twitter:
Despite Fox News technically winning by having more than 4 times the audience as Trumps veteran rally, his presence was strong on and off the screen. Other GOP candidates were asked about their thoughts on Trump's absence and front runner position and Twitter data clearly shows Trump being the popular subject. In this case, audience ratings went deeper than the numbers.
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ReplyDeleteChris La Bella
ReplyDeleteGiven the viewership results of the Republican debate on January 28th, one thing is clear. Donald Trump’s attempt to drastically affect the ratings by skipping the event was not as effective as he thought it would be. One can assume that the presidential candidate and his staff were expecting to see a radical decrease in audience viewership. Perhaps tens of millions of viewers would be lost without him, and Fox News would be overwhelmingly embarrassed. In fact, Trump predicted in a tweet that the debate would be a “total disaster.” But, considering the fact that the debate actually garnered an extra 1.5 million viewers compared to the previous debate in which he participated, and it marked the second best telecast in FNC history, I think it is fair to say that his own effort was “trumped” to a large extent (Guthrie).
Now, what makes me so sure that Fox News defeated Trump this time? The viewership results alone seemingly served as a wakeup call to the candidate. The reason I say this is due to his swift statement that he would be participating in the next debate hosted on Fox News. If he believed he actually proved his point about his popularity and how it affects network results, don’t you think he would be a little more smug or mysterious regarding his decision to participate in the next debate? Would he even have to show up on Fox News again at all? Instead, Trump blamed his absence on a memo from Fox News despite his obvious stubbornness and history of tension with the network (and news anchor Megyn Kelly) since mid 2015.
On top of this, Trump made sure to post the results of Twitter mentions from the debate, in which he received the most by a large margin despite the fact he wasn’t there. However, is that necessarily a good thing? He cannot assume that all of those tweets talked highly of the candidate, or praised his “no show” tactic. I’d imagine that most of those mentions were critical of him, or anxious to hear how Trump would have responded to certain controversial claims. This is a case where quantitative data is limited when it comes to providing insight. Yes, Trump acquired the most attention from Twitter. But, that doesn’t mean that all the attention he received was purely positive. I would love to see a content analysis that evaluates the tweets mentioning Trump in order to gauge the actual emotion, feelings, and claims towards the candidate overall. In my opinion, his post concerning Twitter mentions during the debate did not prove anything because the numbers don’t hold much value without any context.
Lastly, Trump’s attempt to avoid making Fox News money off his star power for advertisements seemed to be ineffective as well. Due to Fox News' immense presence on Twitter, the network was most likely able to attract viewers without the candidate being part of the debate. Because networks often attract specific audiences, potential Republican voters most likely tuned into the debate anyway. Victor Pineiro states in his article “Five Social Trends Marketers Won’t Be Able to Ignore in 2016” that Twitter users are hesitant to click links within tweets (Pineiro). Fox News is notorious for posting powerful quotes and statements throughout each debate without an abundance of hyperlinks, therefore enticing those who follow the network on Twitter to turn on the television. With this said, I believe Trump’s attempt to hurt Fox News in terms of viewership and ad effectiveness was unsuccessful. Given the viewership turnout, advertisers seemed to get a solid return on investment.
Works Cited
Guthrie, Marisa. "TV Ratings: Fox News Debate Rises Without Donald Trump, Hits 12.5 Million Viewers." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. .
Pineiro, Victor. "Five Social Trends Marketers Won't Be Able to Ignore in 2016." Ad Age. Advertising Age, 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. .
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ReplyDeleteLea Herlihy
ReplyDeleteMSS495B
Donald Trump’s attempt to showcase his popularity among the public eye did not turn out as well in his favor as it could have. If he had approached the situation differently then he may have caused a dramatic drop in viewership once his supporters realized that he was not present. This, however, did not take place as “Thursday night’s Republican debate on Fox News Channel nevertheless scored a 8.4 rating and 12.5 million viewers, according to early numbers from Nielsen” (Guthrie).
Due to his announcement and attempt to decrease the numbers, I believe that the audience was curious as to the reasoning behind his actions and what Fox would have to say regarding the matter. Considering his background with having an unconstrained personality and a certain way with words that typical politicians do not have, viewers see him as something “fresh” in the political world. I believe that if he had not provided a forewarning regarding his absence or reluctance to participate in the Republican debate then he would have created a bigger and more effective buzz regarding his campaign. Also playing hooky at the debate to raise money for veterans would have been better received if it didn’t appear so staged.
Another approach that did not work with his plan was his willingness to participate in the next Fox debate. If he had simply not shown up to the first debate so that he could raise money for the veterans and then shown up to the next debate it would seem more authentic even if it were not.
I believe that he was successful in one aspect of his plan – Twitter. He was the most talked about candidate of the night, and while the publicity may not all have been rainbows and butterflies any publicity is better than no publicity. People are talking about Trump and whether they are voicing frustrations or praises they’re still talking. Therefore he has little to worry about until people stop talking. In this day and age talking is no longer good enough. Trump has shown that he can “talk the talk,” but as of now he can’t really “walk the walk”. Candidates need to realize the growing importance of branding a message for the designated platform. The importance of maintaining a video’s relevance on 5 different social platforms becomes a new challenge as, “. A single video needs to be tailored for each platform, optimized for the audience and cultural norms of each” (Pineiro). The candidate that appeals to the new generation of voters by speaking their language, or walking their walk, will come out on top because they will have displayed expertise in more than one field.
Considering Trump’s absence still caused one of his opponents, Ted Cruz, to comment with “I’m a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly, and Ben you’re a terrible surgeon. Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way…” I believe the other candidates feel more threatened than they are letting on to as they are focusing more on what or who is not there rather than the point of the entire debate (Guthrie).
All in all, Trump’s approach to trump Fox News was not as successful as it could have been if he had executed it differently. He has displayed the shock factor, and he has shown America that he knows how to make money, but I believe that he is lacking empathy – even if he has to fake it he needs to learn how to make it look real to play off of his supporters emotions. Ah, politics.
Works Cited:
Guthrie, Marisa. "TV Ratings: Fox News Debate Rises Without Donald Trump, Hits 12.5 Million Viewers." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. .
Pineiro, Victor. "Five Social Trends Marketers Won't Be Able to Ignore in 2016." Ad Age. Advertising Age, 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.
Donald Trump was personal attacked and targeted by Megyn Kelly throughout the first GOP Debate back in August. He was asked questions that were unfair and about personal issues rather than policy. One of the first questions Megyn Kelly asked Donald Trump at the Primary GOP Debate is, ‘"Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don't use a politician's filter. However, that is not without its downsides, in particular, when it comes to women. You've called women you don't like 'fat pigs,' 'dogs,' 'slobs' and 'disgusting animals.’...” (The Washington Post). This question had nothing to do with policy and whatever was said was during a feud where he was provoked and attacked by Rosie O’Donnell. This happened well before he got into politics and I strongly believe it was out of line by the Fox mediator.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump made it his personal choice to not attend the debate. Instead he held a benefit for veterans in Iowa. According to CNBC, “All told, the Trump campaign said the event took in $6 million for the Trump Foundation and the proceeds will be given to 22 organizations.” (CNBC). In place of the GOP Debate Trump put his absence to good use in taking the time and “star power” to raise money for veteran organizations.
I would have to disagree with you that Trump was unsuccessful. If Donald Trumps goal was to hurt Fox News, his job was completed. In reality the ratings dropped 48% from the first GOP Debate held in August by Fox News. CNN Money wrote in an article, “No one in the TV news business expected Fox to surpass the 25 million mark this time. In spite of that, Trump tweeted on Friday afternoon, "They say that if I participated in last night's Fox debate, they would have had 12 million more & would have broken the all time record." In the first Trump-fueled debate, it is recorded that Fox News crushed records with 25 million viewers. The Trump-less debate in Iowa recorded half that with a rating of 11 million. Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said. "And Fox will go from probably having 24 million viewers to about 2 million." (CNN Money). He clearly was exaggerating for effect, a tactic used by many politicians in order to get their point across. But, their ratings were definitely negatively affected due to Trumps nonattendance. “Thursday night marked the second lowest rated GOP debate of the season. And Trump was the most-talked-about candidate without even being there.” (CNN Money). The winners that night are the veterans and the losers were Fox News.
Whether you love or hate Donald Trump’s “star power” or his policies, every television station and each candidate is benefiting from him being in this race. He is resonating and bringing new life into the direction of this country. More people are listing to the candidates because of Trump.
In Trumps defense all of the networks understand what they have with Donald Trump and they use that to their advantage. Let us not forget what a GOP debate is. A GOP debate is a process of discussing certain topics by each candidate, not creating a cage match among candidates and personal attacks. The dialogue should be about important issues about how each candidate is going to solve these problems.
Lastly, although Trump did not win the Iowa caucus, and coming in second place goes without controversy. He has renewed the faith of a lot of Americans who had lost faith in our white house by bringing out new and old voters who have not come out to vote in many years. All in all, I would have to disagree that Donald Trump was unsuccessful. The veterans ended up having the most success that night and Fox News should reassess their moderators and the questions being asked.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Blake, Aaron. "Here Are the Megyn Kelly Questions That Donald Trump Is Still Sore about." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.
Javers, Eamon. "Trump: They Debated. We Raised $6M for Vets." CNBC. N.p., 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.
Settler, Brian. "Who Won the Ratings Race, Fox News or Donald Trump?" CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.
Settler, Brian. "Donald Trump Will Skip Fox News Debate on Thursday." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.
Sarah Schreiner
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump skipping the debate was a power move of some sort as many Americans would say considering that's a popular appropriate term. Most of the talk online and by word of mouth was that he skipped the debate because of Megyn Kelly. “24 million tuned in to watch the first debate last August, after which Trump began targeting the network and anchor Megyn Kelly on social media and in myriad TV interviews” (Gunthrie). Although Trump denies this was the truth, the interesting political tension between the two continues. Kelly thinks Trump has something against women and Trump avoids Kelly by having his own philanthropy event. Sounds like the truth with a bunch of political politeness covering it up. Trump's decision to skip the debate to raise money, to any American, seems like a great power move. Word got out that Fox lost viewership and dropped in ratings and Trump raised millions for our veterans but when put under the microscope, things are clearly a little different. “Donald Trump may have been conspicuously absent, but Thursday night’s Republican debate on Fox News Channel nevertheless scored a 8.4 rating and 12.5 million viewers” (Gunthrie).
The thing about the rating and technicalities is that your average American doesn’t take the effort to look it up. They don’t do the research they read the shortened version on the internet, or even more likely, see a tweet or a post on social media about it and that’s the end of the thought line for them. Yes, technically Fox may have still done well and didn’t lose as many advertisers or viewers as Trump said but even those specific predictions by Trump weren’t meant to be specific I believe. I think it was just Trump’s general prediction, which was right. The ratings and viewership was still high but definitely not as high if Trump would have been there. Whether you like Trump or not you do have to admit the affect that he has on this Presidential race. The candidate had his own show for years. He’s a businessman, a celebrity, and now he’s a republican candidate. He has pull. He draws attention and he knows it. The specifics of his tweets were wrong but the idea is right.
As Chris Anderson says in his article The Long Tail “we have a poor sense of what we want.” People may say that people don’t want to watch Trump or it doesn’t matter if he’s there but clearly it does, whether the impact is small or large. Do I think Trump’s arrogance in overwhelming on his social media? Yes. But do we try and use the exact numbers to prove him wrong? No. Trump has an effect on screen in these debates. He’s bringing more attention to the political debate in our country and some would say that’s a good thing. Do people have to vote for him? No. Can they vote for him? Yes. But hey, he’s bringing the hype, so let him bring it.
Guthrie, Marisa. "TV Ratings: Fox News Debate Rises Without Donald Trump, Hits 12.5 Million Viewers." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.
Anderson, Chris. "The Long Tail." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 1 Oct. 2004. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.