Pundits and political aides may disagree over which candidate fared best in Thursday's Republican debate, but one thing is indisputable—the three Fox News moderators, Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace won the night.

For more than two hours, the trio that won widespread praise in 2012 for hard-hitting questions once again demonstrated that Fox News would offer no safe harbor for Republican candidates.

Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes was of course effusive in his praise.

”I’m extremely proud of all of the moderators—they asked tough, important questions and did their job as journalists,” Ailes said when POLITICO asked him to assess the performance. “I think that was the best political  debate team ever put on television. Their performance was outstanding."

But he has good reason. Wallace acted as the elder statesman of the group, Kelly was the spitfire and Baier steered the ship. The three of them together managed to cover wide ground, pushing the candidates on their past positions, goading them into responding to their competitors and letting interesting moments play out, without getting too far out of hand.

Update: According to data from Nielsen, the debate averaged 24 million viewers, including 7.9 million in the core news demo of adults 25-54. Full details are here.

Competitors and colleagues alike took to social media to praise the effort.

"Across the TV news aisle, a salute to Chris Wallace, @BretBaier and @megynkelly @FoxNews for smart, sharp, unflinching questions #GOPDebate," Disney/ABC Television Group President Ben Sherwood tweeted.

"Roger Ailes clearly the winner of this. This is really good TV," tweeted BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith.

As Baier himself noted in a postgame interview with POLITICO, the debate "was newsmaking right at the top."

It started almost immediately, when Baier asked the candidates to raise their hand if they could not make the pledge to not run as a third-party candidate. Donald Trump raised his hand, started to explain himself, when Rand Paul pounced.

"This is what's wrong!" Paul shouted.

Baier let it play out with just enough time for Paul to make a quick point—and for a good split-screen shot before shutting it down and moving on.

When Trump tried to tell Kelly he had made disparaging comments about women directed only at comedian Rosie O'Donnell, Kelly corrected him saying it was "well beyond Rosie O'Donnell" while shooting him an icy glare.

Wallace then asked Trump for specific evidence that the Mexican government is specifically sending criminal to the United States. When Trump instead talked about how he is the reason the country is talking about illegal immigration and the need for a wall, Wallace pushed him further.

"Mr. Trump, I'll give you 30 seconds—I'll give you 30 seconds to answer my question, which was, what evidence do you have, specific evidence that the Mexican government is sending criminals across the border? Thirty seconds," Wallace said.

Trump said he knows Mexico is sending criminals because people on the Border Patrol told him so.

When Wallace tried to get Ohio Gov. John Kasich to react to Trump's comments about illegal immigration and Kasich avoided the question, focusing instead on how Trump has "hit a nerve" with voters, Wallaced pushed back.

"Respectfully, can we talk about illegal immigration?" Wallace said.

When Kasich gave another vague answer about people wanting solutions, Wallace didn't hide his disappointment.

"All right, well, Sen. Rubio, let me see if I can do better with you," he said, before asking Marco Rubio about illegal immigrants.

When Chris Christie and Rand Paul got into a tussle over the National Ssecurity Agency collecting information on Americans, Kelly let them duke it out before she stepped in, calling on Christie to "make your point."

Kelly asked a pointed question to Bush about his position on the Iraq War:

"To the families of those who died in that war who say they liberated and deposed a ruthless dictator, how do you look at them now and say that your brother's war was a mistake?"

She also had a pointed question for Trump:

"When did you actually become a Republican?"

At one point in the debate Ben Carson lamented how little airtime he was getting.

"We have a lot for you, don't worry," Kelly said. "Fear not, you may rue that request."