Agree or disagree with them, Thursday’s presidential debate among the top Republican hopefuls was highly entertaining.

And judging from the TV ratings, a whopping 16 percent of U.S. house- holds were tuned in to the show, headlined by Donald Trump and a cast that included Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie. No major slip- ups occurred, though analysts tended to agree that Trump’s brashness might wear on his front-runner status.

Some 24 million viewers watched the debate on Fox, seven times more than the 3.2 million who tuned in for the 2012 season’s first Republican debate. Ratings tracker TVNewser called it the most-watched cable news program ever.

Of course, that’s a mere fraction of those who watched the last Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, which drew a historic 114.5 million viewers. But hey, the debate featured 10 talky guys in suits behind podiums hurling verbal jabs and barbs; the Super Bowl is all about burly guys in shoulder pads knocking each other to the ground.

Perhaps next time around, the takedown attempt on Trump might in- clude a tackle.