Surprise: Debate ratings go up without Donald Trump

The final GOP presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses happened Thursday, and, as was repeated ad nauseam, frontrunner Donald Trump made a decision to hold his own event because he doesn’t like Megyn Kelly and felt her treatment of him in the last Fox News debate was “unfair”. But did it his prediction come true?

“Look at all the cameras”, he said. “Like the Academy Awards, this is like the Academy Awards!” said Donald Trump, (R) presidential candidate. “This is the Academy Awards!” Trump, the statement said, “offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that Fox News contribute $5 million to his charities”.

Fox’s Trump-less debate had 12.5 million viewers between 9 and 11 p.m., according to Nielsen.

Trump also said he would’ve “in theory” rather have been at the Republican debate Thursday night.

The debate drew the channel’s largest audience aside from the debut Republican primary showdown held last August, which drew a record 24 million viewers, early research by the television ratings firm showed Friday.

Fox News said on Tuesday the war of words escalated behind the scenes over the weekend, and accused Trump’s campaign manager of “terrorizations” against Kelly. Data shows Trump was the number-one candidate searched in all 50 states during the debate, even though he was not there. He later joked that Cruz, who Trump has argued is not qualified to be president because he was born in Canada, was “an anchor baby in Canada”. The Donald got more than 67,900 likes on a single Facebook post announcing his event had raised millions, according to Engagement Labs, a social media marketing company. Trump is still in the lead towards the Iowa caucuses, a cause for concern for his close rivals, senator ed Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio. Chris, please attack Ted.

In the last major preference poll before the caucuses, Trump had the support of 28 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers, with Cruz at 23 percent and Rubio at 15 percent.

The network accused a member of Trump’s campaign team of wielding a threat against Kelly that suggested she should ask more fair questions of the presidential candidate this time around. There was more drama inside, as a small group of protesters interrupted him and Trump joined the crowd in chanting “USA” to drown out the discord. The account Twitter Government reported that Trump was the most mentioned of all GOP candidates by far for two hours.

Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate not in attendance to get a boost from the debate.

“I would strongly consider that, yes”, Trump said.

“By missing the debate, he doesn’t have an “oops” moment”, Smith said.

Still, Harris said the campaign is very much aware of the advantage in showcasing views that appeal to religious voters, especially with anti-abortion messaging.