Palin-Biden debate draws 69.9 million viewers
The TV turnout for Thursday night's debate was even larger than expected -- and almost every analyst expected a huge audience.
According to Nielsen ratings released late Friday, the showdown between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden was seen by 69.989 million viewers, the second largest TV audience for any presidential or vice presidential debate since Nielsen started counting the number of persons watching debates in 1976.
In terms of city by city viewing, Baltimore’s TV market had the highest percentage of viewership with 59.1 percent of TV households tuned to the event – about 660,000 homes. St. Louis, the city in which the debate was held, had the second highest percentage of viewers at 58.3.
Baltimore also had the third-highest percentage of viewers for last week's presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.
Outside of keen interest by viewers in cities where debate are held or will be held in coming days, the only other consistent factor among markets with highest viewership appears to be that many have large African-American populations, which some analysts believe have become particularly engaged in this year's election, which features the first African American candidate of a major party.
The largest national audience ever for a presidential debate was 80.6 million viewers on Oct. 28, 1980 for a meeting between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
A 1992 debate between Bill Clinton, George H.W Bush and H. Ross Perot drew 69.9 million just slightly behind the 69.989 for Palin and Biden.
Among the vice presidential debates that previously ranked highest were the 1984 meeting between Geraldine Ferraro and George H.W. Bush, which drew 56.7 million viewers, and the 2004 encounter between John Edwards and Dick Cheney that was seen by 43.6 million.
Thursday’s debate was carried on 13 networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Telefutura, Telemundo, BBC-America, CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, PBS and C-SPAN. ABC had the largest audience with 13.3 million viewers. The audiences for PBS and C-SPAN were not included in the aggregate figure of 69.989 million because of differences in measurement procedures for non-commercial broadcasters.
While 1976 was the first year that Nielsen started counting persons watching rather than TV households due to advances in technology, the rating service measured household viewing for presidential debates back to 1960 when John Kennedy and Richard Nixon debated.
The ratings (which measure TV households) for those debates were considerably higher than the ratings for Thursday’s debate. Whereas Thursday’s debate earned a 45.0 rating nationally, the largest Kennedy-Nixon showdown earned a 61.0 rating, though, it was radically different and much smaller TV universe in those days.
Comments
I am curious as to way the vice-presidential debate always stirs more of an audience and more hype than the presidential debates themselves. But I think this particular debate is more popular for numerous reasons:
1.) This is probably the most important election since Vietnam
2.) Sarah Palin-Two months ago, I didn't even know the name, much less who the governor of Alaska is. Afterwards we heard a lot of her sketchy personal life, which has kind of had its "appeal" towards the American public.
3.) God forbid, if whoever gets elected wins, these two candidates will become president, so we want to know what Biden and Palin stand for also.
4.) Hot topic issues: Iraq, 9/11, Gas prices, recession, bailout plans. Need I say more?
Posted by: Alex P. | October 3, 2008 8:33 PM
Alex I think the answer to your question is honesty. Vice presidential candidates have the luxury of not being under as powerful a microscope as the presidential candidates. They can be more honest and straightforward because people aren't actually voting for them.
Great question from Alex, isn't it? I think there are many reasons for this huge audience, including the fact that outside of two network interviews, GOP handlers have kept Palin away from tough questions. American voters wanted to see how she would react on her own when she had to answer. Unfortunately, she and her handlers decided she did not have to answer any question she did not want to, and moderator, Gwen Ifill, let her get away with that all night even after Joe Biden complained. Thanks. Z
Posted by: Corey | October 3, 2008 11:21 PM
A vice presidential debate for the ages was one that did not separate any one canidate from the other. Both canidates were strong in their arguments and did not make any big mistakes. Damage control is a role that Sarah Palin willingly accepted considering the attacks that the Republican Party undertook leading up to the debate. As a viewer and an educated voter, I would have like to see Biden or Palin affirm that they could successfully lead the nation if there was a tragedy and separate one canidate from the other in such a close election. That being said I would have also like to see a stronger emphasis placed on foreign policy, seeing that whomever leads our country will immediately have to make some drastic decisions regarding the War in Iraq upon taking the oath into office.
Posted by: chris | October 5, 2008 8:21 PM