Will Fox Business Network stick to 'business' in Republican debate?

The recent Republican Presidential Debate staged Oct. 29 in Boulder, Colo. and aired on CNBC rocketed the business news channel’s ratings — for several hours at least — into places they never have been, nor likely ever will again see.

The utter shock of actually having one Republican, let alone a handful, take issue with, challenge, and kick sand back in the faces of a profession that lives to make them look bad, made America take notice to the tune of some 14 million viewers.

Sen. Ted Cruz started the ball rolling by shooting back at the panel of CNBC moderators, Becky Quick, Carl Quintanilla and John Harwood. “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match.”

That was followed by fellow Sen. Marco Rubio offering, “I know the Democrats have the ultimate super PAC. It’s called the mainstream media.”

Sure, there are those who chimed in — particularly President Obama — that if you don’t like dealing with the questions from a panel of TV talking heads, how ya’ gonna deal with Vladimir Putin?

And there are similar voices in advance of the Fox Business Network’s (FBN) debate presentation that aired Nov. 10 saying that the largely conservative-leaning channel will offer their version of softball pitches in the event which took place at the Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisc.

FBN’s moderators, Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo, were joined by Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker in quizzing the candidates on jobs, taxes, the economy and international issues.

Now the gang of eight, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Rubio, Cruz, former governor Jeb Bush, former Hewlett PackardP CEO Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Rand Paul will see if FBN sticks to its guns and in the words of Cavuto, who said, “My goal is to make myself invisible.”

Earlier that night, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum battle on the “undercard,” to borrow a wrestling term, as they desperately try to gain traction in the race to see who makes it to Election Day, Nov. 8, 2016.

The temporary bump CNBC received with the debate was immense considering that according to a ratings report from Oct. 8 from tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com, the channel drew just under 200,000 viewers versus the 1.2 million by Fox and over 400,000 each by CNN and MSNBC.

CNBC, one of the “bottom feeders” on the cable news lineup certainly had nothing to lose and gained plenty of name recognition for anchors who could be considered invisible in the public consciousness.

Who ever heard of Becky Quick prior to the debate?

Apparently not many as her nightly show, “On The Money,” hit a new low in August, only pulling in 28,000 total viewers and just 5,000 viewers in the adults 25-54 demographic, also according to the tvbythenumbers survey.

To be fair, FBN shares viewer anonymity with CNBC, perhaps even more as it is in fewer households and drew half the ratings in that same October viewer survey.

Bartiromo was also cautious as she approached this opportunity to gain notoriety on a more national stage.

“After that (CNBC) debate, I realized, I knew my marching orders,” she told Politico. Her job was not to upstage the candidates as CNBC sought to do, but “Help the voter better understand what each candidate’s plan is, is it a realistic plan, can it work and how is it different from the next guy or gal.”

It will also be interesting to compare how CBS treats Democratic candidates on their next debate, Nov. 14.

Cavuto added, “It’s a debate on economic issues, it’s not ‘Access Hollywood.’”

We shall see.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.