“I’m just sad with the way last night turned out,” Mr. Wallace told The New York Times on Wednesday.
Viewers did not appear to be turned off by all the cross talk. Audience figures on the broadcast networks and the three cable news channels grew in the first 30 minutes and peaked with an average of 68 million viewers between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Eastern time, according to Nielsen. Declines after that were relatively modest. Sixty-four million people were still tuned in to the seven top networks for the final stretch of the 96-minute bout, according to Nielsen.
About 17.8 million people tuned in to Fox News to watch the debate, by far the highest tally for any network. It was one of the biggest nights in Fox News’s history, second only to the 24 million people who watched the first Republican primary debate in 2015, Mr. Trump’s debate-stage debut. The Fox News figure was also the highest for a presidential debate in the history of cable news.
ABC, the only broadcast network to have an hour of pre-debate coverage, had an audience of 12.6 million, the second highest of any outlet.
Debate viewers were evenly split between the cable news and broadcast networks, at roughly 33 million apiece. That’s a contrast from previous cycles, when more viewers tuned in to the networks.
Future debates may be less unruly. “Last night’s debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues,” the Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it would announce changes soon.
The debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Mr. Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, will be held next week. The 2016 vice-presidential debate had an audience of 36 million.
The final two presidential debates are scheduled for Oct. 15 and Oct. 22.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/business/media/trump-biden-debate-ratings.html
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.