The 16.9 million people who saw Fox News Channel’s coverage of the Republican presidential debate on Thursday have made it the fourth most-watched debate in a primary season ever.

The Nielsen company said Friday that’s also the fourth most-watched Republican debate of the 2016 campaign cycle — a testament to the extraordinary interest these events have had for television viewers. The debate stages are getting less crowded, with the Detroit debate featuring Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich.

It was the 11th Republican debate so far; the Democrats have had six.

The two previous debates on Fox News Channel reached 24 million viewers last August and 12.5 million in January.

(AP)