Palin-Biden debate ratings look to be record setting
Thursday night's vice presidential debate looks like it is going to be one of the most watched debates in TV history, and Baltimore led all cities in the percentage of viewers, according to preliminary figures from the Nielsen Company.
The overall rating nationally was 45.0, which mean 45 percent of all TV householads in the country were tuned to the 90-minutes telecast.
By comparison, Friday's presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain earned a rating of 31. 6. (When the final figures were tallied, that translated to 52.4 million viewers.)
The rating in Baltimore for the vice presidential showdown was 59.1, which means almost 3 out of every 5 homes in the market was tuned to the debate. Los Angeles had the lowest rating: 34.4.
The preliminary ratings are drawn from the 55 cities in which Nielsen has electronic meters. If these numbers "hold up" as more complete analyses are run, Thursday's debate will be one of the most watched ever, according to a statement from the company.
The complete national ratings will be available late Friday, according to Nielsen
To see the full list of 55 markets and more historical information on presidential debates, go to: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/45-of-households-in-top-local-tv-markets-watched-palin-and-bidens-vp-debate/
Comments
Of course LA (and most other West Coast markets) are going to have the lowest ratings for the debate... because we're all still stuck in traffic by 6 p.m. when the debate begins.
Posted by: calwatch | October 3, 2008 3:41 PM
I guess when Palin was talking about waving the white flag at the debate, she was talking about Michigan
Nice point, nicely made..... Z
Posted by: steve | October 3, 2008 3:47 PM
Joe Biden was calm and relatively smooth. And she kicked his arse.
Posted by: Kev | October 3, 2008 4:29 PM
Kev-She was horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can you think she did well? Just becasue she lowered the bar on intellectual engagement for women everywhere? She didn't answer questions, her sentences were completely garbled, and she said the same thing over and over. Clearly she was scripted on many of her remarks--my favorite one was something like "Well you can tell I'm not from Washington..." it was so stiff!!! I could tell she's not very smart--and that's about it. She is obviously a good politician, and I did like her suit--but come on--she was completely beneath what I would hope Americans would want from a leader.
Posted by: francine | October 3, 2008 4:48 PM
Palin studied hard, but Biden clearly won. Wish Gwen had asked her about that witchcraft blessing. There is a new video that proves her ties to witchcraft.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YwZ5bCErSo
Posted by: Diane W. | October 3, 2008 7:23 PM
After eight years of joe-six-pack embarassing our country on the world stage, it is amazing that type of candidate still has any appeal.
Posted by: Tom Friedel | October 3, 2008 9:29 PM
Why anyone in the world thinks this woman is qualified to be President of this country if McCain is elected and drops over dead is unimaginable.
Palin did not answer one question that was asked - she's just a "Platitude Palin" who jabbers about her being "just like you" -the ordinary person. Someone told her to say "there you go again" to try and connect herself to Reagan......how stupidly ridiculous can she be anyway.
Isn't it about time the people started electing candidates that are excellent instead of just mediocre "down to earth" uninformed "hockey moms" or someone that's "just like your neighbor, that you can have a beer with".
What exactly has happened to the standard of excellence we used to have in this country. We did not choose excellence for the last eight years and have suffered greatly!
Posted by: Docent | October 3, 2008 9:53 PM
How refreshing to see so many people recognizing the fact that that woman from the North is completely inept for anyting other than birthing babies and shooting animals from a plane for sport. I afraid if she were to, God forbid, get into the White House we might be the next things she'd shoot for sport from a plain ( wrote that as I scrunched my perky nose and gave a wink to my computer screen).
JB
Posted by: J. B. Hanson | October 4, 2008 9:04 AM