Elizabeth Warren and CNN were both in the political spotlight in Tuesday night’s latest Democratic debate, yet fireworks were at a minimum for the most part – and it showed.

Now the frontrunner in most polls, the Massachusetts senator took jabs and swipes from the likes of Sen. Kamala Harris over Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, Mayor Pete Buttigieg over her Medicare For All plan, and ex-Vice President Joe Biden in a compliment that came out all wrong. Back in the thick of things just two weeks after having a heart attack, Sen. Bernie Sanders also made damn sure to replant his progressive flag to show the 11 youngsters on stage at Ohio’s Otterbein University how its done.

Being the fourth debate that the expansive group of candidates have had this primary season, and more than four months before the first vote is cast in the opening salvo of the Iowa caucuses, there was a lot of, to quote Bernie, “the same old same old.”

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The same could not said for the rating. Snaring 8.3 million viewers, the shindig hosted by CNN and the New York Times finished as the second least-watched debate of the Democratic cycle. Last night’s three-hour run on the Jeff Zucker-led outlet was down 22% from the last time CNN hosted a Dems debate, back on July 31 in what was Night 2 of a two-part event. In fact, the only debate to do worse than last night and its record number of candidates was the first night of the last CNN-aired debate on July 30. That Sanders- and Warren-led campfire of 10 contenders snagged 8.2 million viewers for the WarnerMedia-owned outlet.

It’s broadcast apples to cable avocados, but obviously last night was nowhere near the best ever Dems debate result: 18.1 million tuned into to the NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo event of June 27, the second night of the first yak fest of the season and the debut of then-frontrunner Biden.

Tuesday’s number was also way below the all-time debate high of 24 million when Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans had their first debate in 2015. The ratings-obsessed Trump didn’t have those numbers to reference last night when he went on social media to bash the proceedings:

You would think there is NO WAY that any of the Democrat Candidates that we witnessed last night could possibly become President of the United States. Now you see why they have no choice but to push a totally illegal & absurd Impeachment of one of the most successful Presidents! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2019

Our record Economy would CRASH, just like in 1929, if any of those clowns became President! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2019

In the news demo of adults 25-54, last night’s 8-11 PM ET gathering drew 2.4 million viewers, a 20% drop from the last CNN-fronted debate. Digitally, the debate had an impressive 9.2 million live streams, drawing from the CNN site, the NYT site and Facebook. The latter, like Twitter, was the subject of some debate during the debate in terms of the Mark Zuckerberg-founded company taking ads that are decidedly full of falsehoods.

The next debate is set for November 20 on MSNBC – they might want fireworks.