McCain-Obama debate draws huge audience
Friday night's presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama was seen in one out of every three homes in America, according to preliminary overnight ratings from The Nielsen Company.
Overall, the debate earned a rating of 33.2 for the combined audience of the nine networks and cable channels that carried the 90-minute event.
In some cities, the size of the audience was staggering. In St. Louis, for example, which had the highest percentage of viewership, the rating was 52.1, which means that the debate was seen in more than half of all homes in the St. Louis TV market.
Baltimore finished 3rd highest in terms of viewership with a rating of 47.1, which means 515,000 homes in the Baltimore area were tuned to the debate.
The nation's capitol finished fourth with a 44.6 rating or 1.03 million homes tuned to the debate. (The reason the Washington audience is larger even though the rating is lower than that of Baltimore is that Washington is a larger TV market. It ranks 9th, while Baltimore is 26th. St. Louis is 21st.)
These are Super Bowl sized audiences.
The overnight ratings are based on 55 metered markets. The complete audience figures, with a tally of how many viewers watched, won't be available until Monday, according to Nielsen. But preliminary as these figures are, the confirm the enormous interest in these debates.
Comments
To be honest, I didn't expect the rating to be anything less than the above-mentioned figures. The economy's in the toilet, there's a war going on, so of course the American people are going to watch these debates religiously. There's a lot of hot-topic issues to be dealt with.
This is an important election, especially for people in my age group (I'm almost 22). I want to know that I have a future in the professional world, because I don't want to be working at a record store the rest of my life.
Hi. Alex, Good point about expecting a huge audience because of the crisis in which the nation finds itself. It is also interesting to hear from someone 22 and get a sense of the anxiety they are feeling about having a future in the "professional world." I am 58. My generation assumed that if we went to college, we would have a future in the professional world. It is tragic that we have failed to guarantee the same for people your age. That is something we should truly be ashamed of. I am encouraged to see you so engaged with the national politics. That is another thing my snotty generation assumed about yours: that you were not as politically angaged as we were. For all our early activity in the 1960s, where are we today? Half my generation has already been cashiered out of the work force without changing the country for the better. Thanks. Z
Posted by: Alex | September 28, 2008 7:33 PM