In a letter to NBC today, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus suspended the party's planned February debate with partner NBC/Telemundo.
This after the party was critical of the moderators in sister station CNBC's Wednesday night debate.
“This is a disappointing development," NBC responded in a statement. "However, along with our debate broadcast partners at Telemundo we will work in good faith to resolve this matter with the Republican Party.”
So from the Houston angle, what does that mean for us? The debate was supposed to be held at the University of Houston.
Here is a statement issued by UH after the RNC letter.
"We're actively monitoring the situation between the RNC and NBC News/Telemundo regarding the Feb. 26 Republican presidential candidates' debate," said Vice Chancellor/Vice President of University Marketing, Communication and Media Relations Richie C. Hunter. "The University of Houston is proud to be selected to host this important national conversation, and looks forward to the spotlight the debate will bring to our community and the important issues at hand."
For ongoing debate updates, visit uh.edu/debate.
Hopefully UH gets to keep the debate. Stay tuned.
As for CNBC, the network issued the following release after the debate:
CNBC's Republican Presidential Debate was the most-watched telecast on television last night beating Game 2 of the World Series. Among adults 25-54 and adults 18-49, CNBC's Republican Presidential Debate was Wednesday's most-watched cable telecast.
CNBC's Republican Presidential Debate averaged 14.0 million total viewers, 3.9 million adults 25-54 and 3.4 million adults 18-49, making it CNBC's most-watched telecast in network history. Moderated by CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood, the debate was held at the Coors Events Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.
In the 6PM ET debate, CNBC averaged 1.6 million total viewers and the network's 7PM ET pre-debate show, "Your Money, Your Vote," averaged 3.3 million total viewers. The 11:30PM ET encore of the Republican Presidential Debate averaged 1 million total viewers.
The Republican Presidential Debate averaged 3.5 times as many total viewers and 1.8 times as many adults 25-54 as the previous record holder (2002 Winter Olympics telecast on 2/22).
The Republican Presidential Debate averaged 4.2 times as many total viewers and 3.9 times as many adults 25-54 as the 2011 CNBC Republican Presidential Debate.
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