If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!“The first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama is on track to pull a surprisingly average viewership number, drawing fewer households in the preliminary ratings than George W. Bush’s face off against John Kerry four years ago.In the meter-market overnights, Friday night’s 90-minute debate in Mississippi received a preliminary household rating of 33.2.
That’s 16% lower than the national number from the 2004 debate, which aired on a Thursday — generally TV’s most-watched night of the week. Friday’s number is only slightly above George W. Bush and Al Gore’s first debate in 2000 and the Clinton-Dole debate in 1996.
The McCain-Obama rating represents 55 of the 56 largest TV viewing markets in the country and includes cable and broadcast networks. A firmer sense of the debate’s popularity will be available Monday when Nielsen releases the national numbers — including total viewers — so the debate’s overall rank could shift. The St. Louis market had the largest debate audience, with a household rating of 52.1, while the Phoenix/Prescott market had the lowest rating, 24.8 (top markets here).
The first 1980 bout between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter still holds the record as the most-viewed televised presidential debate, with a 58.9 household rating and 80.6 million viewers….
