I think they're right:
"Viewership for the first two GOP debates was an anomaly in a highly unusual Republican nomination cycle. While I won't predict ratings for this debate, we expect the audience to be significantly smaller,” said CNN Washington Bureau Chief Sam Feist.
The 2008 cycle saw some high numbers for the Democratic debates, drawn by the head-to-head match-up of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both of whom had a chance to make history as either the first black or woman president. The most watched Democratic debates of the 2008 cycle came late in the season. On Jan. 31, 2008, the Democratic debate hosted by CNN, brought in 8.3 million viewers. The second most watched debate of the 2008 cycle was hosted by MSNBC on Feb. 26, and brought in 7.77 million viewers.
For comparison’s sake to Tuesday’s debate, the October debate of the 2008 cycle, hosted by MSNBC, brought in just 2.45 million viewers.
The highest rated of the 20+ debates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had 8.3 million in the heat of the contest. At this point? Less than a pithy 3 million. Like I said, the only people who are going to watch these things are people who have already made up their minds, the most politically aware partisans. What you see on the GOP side is not some driving interest in the public in understanding the issues. Its all Donald Trump:
"The Democratic debate holds little interest for Republican-leaning viewers, except for the novelty of a genuine socialist on the national stage. It holds little interest for reality TV viewers, since it promises little ad hominem drama and few prospects of outrageous behavior. Therefore both elements of the Trump Effect will be absent,” Tyndall wrote. "When Donald claims credit, as I am certain he will, for the difference in the two sets of ratings, he will be entitled to do so."
Just by comparison, the
highest rated GOP primary debate of the 2012 cycle was just 2.5 million viewers in the demo, under 8 million overall. They had 20 of them. Do you remember that? No you don't because you're a normal person and didn't watch them.
As I've said before, the equivalent on our side would be if we had Will Smith running and leading in the polls. That would get us 25 million viewers. Two conventional politicians and some other guys? Yeah. A lot, let less.
So, again, why do we need two dozen of these? If you could get more on the calendar I doubt the media would even be interested in showing them. These 'debates' are corporate media events designed to sell advertising. Not demonstrations of how vibrant democracy is. Ridiculous. They aren't going to push aside profitable programming in prime time for a barely entertaining snooze fest. But Donald Trump, or Will Smith... that's different.
Six is more than sufficient. That's if the public can stay awake past 3.