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"Wednesday's prime time GOP debate averaged 22.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched program in CNN's history.
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The 6 p.m. "undercard" debate drew 6.3 million viewers.
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These are NFL-level ratings -- affirming that the Donald Trump fueled Republican debate slate is one of the most popular television shows of the year.
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For comparison's sake, CNN's most-watched presidential primary debate before Wednesday was a Democratic debate on January 31, 2008. It had an average of 8.3 million viewers.
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CNN's most-watched program overall was a special "Larry King Live" episode in 1993. The episode featured Al Gore and Ross Perot debating NAFTA and averaged 16.8 million viewers.
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Wednesday's matchup easily surpassed that total. CNN's debate was slightly lower-rated than Fox's GOP face-off one month ago in Ohio. That prime-time debate, the first of the season, averaged 24 million live viewers. Its earlier debate that day averaged 6.1 million.
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What accounts for the difference? For one thing, Fox's main debate was two hours long while CNN's was three hours.
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From a campaign's perspective, longer might have been better, because it gave the 11 candidates more time to talk and argue. It also gave CNN more time for commercial breaks.
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But the length probably diminished the overall ratings. That's because the ratings are an average of minute-by-minute viewership, so if viewers didn't stay for the whole program, the average was lower.
CNN's audience grew exponentially starting at 5 p.m., when about 1 million viewers were tuned in for pre-debate coverage.
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The 6 p.m. hour, featuring the beginning of the "undercard" debate, averaged 4.8 million viewers (with many more toward the end of the hour). The 7 p.m. hour, with the rest of the first debate and analysis from CNN commentators, averaged 7.2 million.
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Then the audience really surged. The 8 p.m. hour averaged 20.7 million viewers. The peak came in the 9 p.m. hour, right around the middle of the main debate, with an average of 24.7 million.
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Some critics said they thought the debate began to lose some steam in the 10 p.m. hour. The ratings indicate that there was only a modest drop-off -- from 24.7 million at 9 p.m. to 22.5 million at 10 p.m.
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Nearly 20 million were still watching when the debate ended at 11:15 p.m.
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Wednesday's debate also set a live-streaming record for the network.
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At its online peak around 9:45 p.m., there were 921,000 concurrent users on CNN's live stream, easily making it the most-watched web stream of a primary debate ever.
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The ratings show that these GOP debates are drawing viewers who've never bothered turning on a debate before -- largely due to Trump's presence.
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Primary debates at this point in the 2011-2012 campaign cycle averaged 4 to 5 million total viewers each.
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Trump tweeted about Wednesday's ratings when he heard about them on Thursday afternoon. He said he wondered if CNN would send him "flowers and a thank you note."
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In the key advertiser demographic of viewers ages 25 to 54, CNN's debate averaged 7.06 million, versus 7.94 million for Fox's debate.
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CNN's event skewed a bit younger overall: It averaged 2.74 million viewers ages 18 to 34 versus 2.56 million for Fox's.
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Historically the most popular events on TV have been shown by broadcast networks, not cable channels like CNN.
According to Nielsen data, Wednesday's debate ranked as the #10 cable program ever, behind 8 college football games on ESPN and the Fox debate last month."
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"CNNMoney (New York) September 17, 2015: 5:26 PM ET"
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