It was back in March when DNC chair Tom Perez announced that the DNC would not be taking up Fox News on its offer to host a Democratic primary debate, with Perez concluding that Fox News was “not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates.”

Even Bill Maher tore into the DNC, tweeting, “Democrats, you call yourself The Resistance? Then fight behind enemy lines! That’s what a resistance does.”

Instead, the DNC turned to liberal MSNBC, and then to equally liberal but not as outspoken about it CNN — but it looks like the decision to blow off Fox News was a bad one; or a good one, in that even fewer people got to see what a clown show it was. CNN, your ratings still suck:

Night 1 of CNN’s Democratic primary debate was watched by 8.69 million total viewers — a 43% drop from the 15.3m audience of NBC’s first debate. https://t.co/1oaEnQ7adb pic.twitter.com/7lXGNH4VMW — TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) July 31, 2019

A 43 percent drop? That’s astounding. Adweek reports:

Yes, 8.7 million isn’t anywhere close to 15.3 million. However, the fact that CNN is approaching the same total number of viewers as a broadcast network like NBC is really nothing to scoff at. [Editor’s note: Yes it is.] We’re also in the last week of July, not exactly a time where folks traditionally flock to their television sets. On the downside, last night’s total is down from the network’s October 2015 Democratic primary debate total (a solid 15.8 million). However, it’s still the second-most-watched Democratic primary debate in network history. Fox News had the first Republican primary debate of the 2016 election cycle, airing on Aug. 6, 2015. It delivered a whopping 24 million total viewers, making it the most-watched non-sports basic cable telecast since Nielsen started measuring audiences in the mid-’80s.

This is why those perpetual boycotts of Tucker Carlson et al. always amuse us. Do you want people to actually see your commercial? Advertise it on Fox News in prime time.

??????????? — terrishep?️‍??? love the USA (@terriUKfan) July 31, 2019

@DNC Well, this is what U asked 4–low ratings 4 the debate! I guess if U wanted the higher ratings, U would have opted to have them televised on @foxnews! — JustMeUSA (@covfeferulez1) July 31, 2019

Could be two reasons. 1. Nobody watches @CNN or 2. Everyone figured out these candidates are nuts. OR both can be true. — politicalprofile (@poloticalprof) July 31, 2019

How many feel asleep during it though?? — Peter Wolffstein-Yale (@WolffsteinYale) July 31, 2019

Will “Sleepy” Joe Biden make it all the way through tonight’s debate without nodding off?

Because we wanted to see what the sh*t show was going to be, but we didn’t need to suffer through it twice! — lori (@lori52993) July 31, 2019

That’s a solid point — the first debates were kind of amusing just because of all the people crammed up there, but suffering through it again … hard pass for millions and millions, apparently.

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