CBS News’ Republican Debate Gets 13.5 Million Viewers

Saturday night’s alright for fighting – especially of the debating variety.

Among those people as many as thirty-two percent people proclaimed Marco Rubio as the victor of the GOP debate last night on CBS News.

The last debate before the key SC primaries later this month was the most watched (13.51 million viewers) so far this election year, the network that hosted Saturday’s clash said, citing Nielsen. By comparison, the Democrats on Thursday night were watched by 8 million viewers on PBS and CNN.

Interest in the debate was also likely heightened by the late afternoon news coverage on the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But political commentators were comparing the lack of civility in Saturday’s contentious meeting of the six remaining GOP candidates in Greenville, S.C., to a steel-cage wrestling match.

According to Variety, CBS News’ debate received a 3.0 Nielsen rating among adults aged 25-54 and the viewership peaked between 10 and 10:30 p.m. (EST) with 14.6 million viewers.

CBS also said its live streaming service, CBSN, had more than two million video streams during the debate, but the Internet numbers are not comparable to the TV ratings.

Correction: An earlier version of this article reported the incorrect viewership for the CNN debate in December.

Rubio told CBS on Sunday that he prevailed during the debate because he responded to all attacks launched by his opponents against him.

At one point, CBS News moderator John Dickerson chastised the battling candidates by saying, “Hold on gentlemen, I’m going to turn this auto around”. The debate had 18 million viewers.