David M Jackson

USA TODAY



A total of 16.9 million people watched the Republican presidential debate on Thursday, the most-watched debate of 2016 and the second-highest-rated telecast in the network's history, Fox News said Friday, citing Nielsen ratings data.

"The debate ranks as the fourth-highest primary debate in history," Fox News said in a press release.

One reason: The presence of Donald Trump. The last Fox debate, a Jan. 28 event in Iowa that the Republican front-runner boycotted, drew smaller numbers.

Fox also reported that a live stream of Thursday's debate in Detroit had 2.4 million video starts, peaking at 1,489,937 concurrent streams.

"This marks the most-watched primary event ever, via live stream," Fox News reported.

CNN noted that Fox's debate Thursday drew an 11.6 household rating in Nielsen's metered markets: