Fox News felt the absence of Donald Trump during its Republican Debate telecast last night but still drew a strong 12.5 million viewers, according to early Nielsen figures.

The debate from Des Monies, Iowa is the second-most watched telecast in the network’s history, but the debate was the second-lowest audience for the seven Republican Debates since August. Trump, who skipped the debate after a dust-up with Fox News over debate moderator Megyn Kelly, instead hosted a event dedicated to military veterans, portions of which were aired by CNN and MSNBC.

CNN averaged 1.7 million viewers during the 9 to 11 p.m. hour while MSNBC drew a little over 1 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The debate drew 3.5 million adult 25-54 demo as was the most watched show last night on either broadcast or cable television.

The earlier debate moderated by FNC’s Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum averaged 4.5 million in total viewers and 882K in the key demo. 

Viewership For Republican Debates

Aug. 6                    Fox News – 24 million

Sept. 17                 CNN – 22.9 million

Dec. 15                   CNN – 18 million

Oct. 28                   CNBC – 14 million

Nov. 10                  Fox Business Channel – 13.5 million

Jan. 28                  Fox News – 12.5 million

Jan. 14                   Fox Business Channel – 11 million

Fox Business Network’s Republican Presidential Debate failed to match the network’s record-setting November debate performance, drawing 11 million viewers.

The debate, which was highlighted by a spirited battle between candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, was the second-most watched show in the network’s history, behind the 13.5 million the network average for its Nov. 10 debate, said network officials.

FBN's debate telecast, held in North Charleston, S.C., drew 3 million adult 25-54 viewers, also second behind its November debate. The telecast was also a hit on social media, drawing 1.2 million tweets reaching 6.4 million unique Twitter users, according to Nielsen's daily Twitter TV Ratings report.

FBN’s 6 p.m. debate, moderated by FBN reporters Sandra Smith and Trish Regan, pulled in 2 million total viewers and 289,000 in the 25-54 demo, according to network officials.

Fox Business has secured a second Republican Presidential Debate scheduled to air on Jan. 14, the network said Tuesday.

Fox Business, which drew 13.5 million viewers for its Nov. 10 Republican debate telecast, will televise the newly-scheduled debate from North Charleston, South Carolina -- two days after President Obama's State of the Union address, according to network officials.

The network drew critical acclaim for its handling of the Nov. 10 debate, which aired weeks after the much criticized CNBC debate.

Fox Business moderators and the entry criteria for candidates to appear in the debate, will be announced closer to the date, said Fox Business.

GOP Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson are threatening to pull out of CNBC’s Oct. 28 Republican debate if as proposed the debate goes beyond two hours, according to published reports.

In a letter to CNBC Thursday, the Trump and Carson camps said neither candidate would participate in the debate if its longer than 120 minutes including commercials and does not include opening and closing statements, according to NBC News.  

CNBC had proposed that its debate would not include opening and closing statements and would run two hours plus an additional 16 minutes in commercial breaks, according to NBC.

In a statement Thursday, CNBC spokesman Brian Steel said: "Our goal is to host the most substantive debate possible. Our practice in the past has been to forego opening statements to allow more time to address the critical issues that matter most to the American people. We started a dialogue yesterday with all of the campaigns involved and we will certainly take the candidates’ views on the format into consideration as we finalize the debate structure.”

Previous Republican Presidential debates, powered mostly by Republican frontrunner Trump, have generated record ratings for Fox News and CNN.