According to last night’s preliminary ratings, the second presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama scored significantly better ratings than the first match-up between the two candidates, though still far short of the monster audience that tuned in for last week’s vice presidential debate. Yesterday’s contest averaged 33 million viewers in the country’s 55 largest TV markets, nearly 30 percent more than the 25.6 million who tuned in for the Sept. 26 McCain-Obama showdown. (The increase is likely due in part to the simple fact that the first debate aired on a Friday, when viewership levels are notoriously low.) Of course, neither debate came close to last Thursday’s vice presidential showdown between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, which nabbed almost 70 million viewers to make it one of the most-watched debates in history. ABC again fared the best with last night’s debate viewership, grabbing an average 14.5 million, while only 9.7 million watched on NBC and 9.3 million on CBS. (Fox data released by Nielson only covered the first hour of the 90-plus-minute debate, during which the network averaged 5.2 million viewers.) The breakdown for the first presidential debate was 10.2 million for ABC, 7.8 million for NBC, and 7.6 million for CBS.
As for non-election-related programming, CBS’ NCIS (15.7 million) won the night over the ABC’s Dancing With the Stars results show (which earned 13.4 million viewers airing at 8 p.m. in the East and 9 p.m. in the West), NBC’s The Biggest Loser: Families (6.3 million), and Fox’s House rerun (6.3 million). Over at The CW, 90210 pulled in 3.1 million viewers (down only 3 percent from last week’s 3.2), and Privileged continued to improve, even against the debates in the 9 p.m. slot, by attracting 2.3 million (up 20 percent from last week’s 1.9).
More TV news:
Dancing With the Stars results show recap
V.P. debate scores big ratings
PopWatch: Did you watch the Palin-Biden debate?
Did anyone else notice that, at one point, McCain hobbled around like an Alzheimer’s patient while Obama answered a question? It made me laugh out loud. I also didn’t realize he was so hunched over.
McCain was not hobbling. And I’m pretty sure Alzheimers’ patients have issues with their minds, not their bodies. Are you just looking for ANY excuse not to vote for McCain? Just don’t vote for him if that’s your preference. Simple as that.
Mac, people like you make Democrats look like mean-spirited a-holes. Most of the McCain/Palin bashing is so petty, it’s staggering.
Mac, McCain has to move around to alleviate the pain from his POW injuries. It’s also why he rubs his hands. Heard this on NPR today.
TL – the bashing is staggeringly petty on both sides. And in regards to being mean-spirited, when it comes to the official campaigns and their conduct, the McCain/Palin ticket has shown a willingness to get personal and veer away from the actual issues much moreso than the Obama/Biden ticket. Hence Palin bringing up Ayers and Wright again instead of focusing on the economy.
Mac, if I ever met you I’d be tempted to belt you. My mother has Alzheimer’s and if you knew anyone with that disease, you wouldn’t be making jokes about it. If you don’t like John McCain, don’t vote for him. But then,you’re probably too busy making jokes at sick peoples’ expense to actually to show up to vote.
Ashleigh, bringing up Ayers and Wright is relevant — it reveals character and judgement. Anyway, I was talking more about civilian partisans — I generally find dems to be far more crass and mean-spirited with their criticisms than republicans. The right can be petty, too — but not nearly as much, I find. As a centrist, I have a pretty good perspective on this.
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