Vice Presidential Debate Ratings: Early Numbers 42% Higher Than First Presidential Debate

NEW YORK — Who's running for president, anyway?

More than 70 million people watched Thursday's vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin on television, far more than the audience for the first contest featuring the top of the tickets.

That would make it the second most-watched political debate ever, behind only the 80.6 million people who watched President Jimmy Carter and challenger Ronald Reagan in their only 1980 encounter, according to Nielsen Media Research.

When John McCain and Barack Obama met in their first debate on Sept. 26, Nielsen recorded 52.4 million viewers. They will have two more debates, the first of them next Tuesday.

Palin has been a television star since joining the GOP ticket a month ago. The curiosity factor undoubtedly brought in viewers this week after Palin raised doubts about her readiness for the job with some wobbly TV interviews.

Most analysts said she erased some of those doubts Thursday but didn't necessarily win the debate or bring more voters into the McCain camp.

Timing may also have played a part in the big ratings. Thursday is one of the most popular nights of the week for TV-watching, while Friday, when McCain and Obama first debated, is one of the least popular.

Generally, only Super Bowls bring together so many Americans to watch the same thing.

Nielsen estimated that 69.99 million people watched Palin and Biden on either ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, BBC America, Telemundo or TeleFutura. The figure does not include PBS or C-SPAN, which also showed the debate, but PBS estimated its audience at 3.5 million.

The audience far exceeded any other vice presidential debate. The closest was in 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman on a major-party ticket, and 56.7 million people watched her and Vice President George Bush.

ABC claimed a pundit victory. Its audience for the half hour of post-debate analysis Thursday was larger than that of NBC or CBS.

Comments

[RobertHewson]

09:20 PM on 10/03/2008

"Joe Sixpack" Speaks:
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/10/joe-sixpack-speaks.html

[zann]

06:23 PM on 10/03/2008

She seems so electric that I cannot imagine her sitting down to think about something. I'm guessing she absorbs ideas and needs from people who are close to her and runs glittering hard with them. If she believed like me, I'd love her. But we can't have a(nother) president so vulnerable to other people's ideas.

Did you notice, she paused several times then changed directions using some Republican catch phrase? Could have been phrases from her debate prep clicking in, and/or somebody could have beamed words at her ear. It only matters if there's proof. From what I read, she wouldn't have needed wires or radio waves or even a receiver in her ear, just an infrared beam from the audience or something like that.

If she stays in the national politics game for a couple of years more, she really will integrate all the new information and get better at this. She loses this race (I hope), then goes back to Alaska. Publishes a ghost written autobiography, with lots of pictures. Its a best-seller. (bet they're already planning it). Flies all over doing conferences and speeches. Is the darling of the NRA and old fogies like Pat Buchanan. Wins awards. Learns to do talk shows. Gets more involved in international oil-producer organizations. Or maybe she'll just go gracefully back to her first love, Alaska.

[walkthewalk]

06:10 PM on 10/03/2008

People tuned in to see a train wreck. What they saw instead was a debutante with more self-confidence than she has a right to have considering her lack of knowledge and interest in issues that affect people outside of Alaska. Palin memorized talking points and delivered them regardless of what question she was asked or what was happening around her. We are not electing someone to play VP in a school play. We are electing someone to be VP at a critical time in America. After 8 years of Bush, do we really think that Palin is good enough?

Unfortunately Sarah Palin has set women back many decades. She was practically making love to the camera winking and nodding. She was the cliched female making her way to the top by sweeping men off their feet. Take away her good looks and tell me if she'd be the VP nominee.

[kmdippenger]

06:08 PM on 10/03/2008

People were waiting for more SNL type comedy. While they were somewhat disappointed as Palin had obviously been well scripted, her inappropriate placement of rhetoric (along with nouns, verbs etc) instead of question answering along with her "cuteness" proved to the majority that we just can't stomach her.

[honolulujane]

06:06 PM on 10/03/2008

Wants more power for the Vice Presidency, doesn't answer questions, ignores subpoenas, lies and distracts us so she thinks we won't realize she knows nothing of which she speaks ....who prepped her? I know, oh I know, wink wink Dick Cheney!

[Ohg]

05:57 PM on 10/03/2008

Palin acted like a cheerleader who has read the play book and thinks she can be quarterback ............
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/10/03/palin-cheerleader-who-wants-to-be-quarterback/

[pjburns11]

05:41 PM on 10/03/2008

NO wonder ratings are so high - Fellas, I think she was flirting with us!

http://thetruthburns.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/was-palin-flirting-with-every-man-in-the-us-or-just-me/

[Jules1]

05:24 PM on 10/03/2008

Well this means that many more people know how dumb she is!!!!!!!!!!

[mespace]

05:18 PM on 10/03/2008

Palin can deliver more viewers than Obama. One might think she could also deliver more voters than Obama. Now that she survived the debate without any gaffes, and the corporate welfare system is in place, I expect Obama's lead to quickly evaporate. http://mespace.wordpress.com

[raw915]

05:44 PM on 10/03/2008

dreamer...

[ella52]

04:59 PM on 10/03/2008

I think this proves that Obama and McCain have each managed to get their views out there.
Palin, not so much.
So there was more attention on the event she was involved in. Though I think that curiosity is pretty much satisfied... empty calories.

[indyleftist]

04:54 PM on 10/03/2008

Well first off I don't believe in the ratings numbers (not just these but in general)

But I'm not surprised more people watched
Same reason people watch Nascar. They want to see a crash

[faith]

04:44 PM on 10/03/2008

I must say that Katie Couric has redeemed herself. She asked the follow up questions that everyone else in the media seems to be afraid to do with Ms. Palin's obtuse responses. Ms. Ifill, and all others should speak on the record when it is obvious that Palin is refusing to answer the questions asked.

[snippetz]

04:29 PM on 10/03/2008

She has no idea what she's doing. This is all obviously a crash course for her, maybe that's why she has that wire on her right shoulder and a tiny ear piece on her right ear....
So as long as she winked and smiled and shrugged through the whole debate, she thought she'd be okay....
She will be the ultimate bridge to nowhere if she ever gets to DC as well as the ultimate danger.

[DaVinci42]

04:26 PM on 10/03/2008

Luckily I had taped the debate & so after 20 minutes of Palin not answering the questions, I fast forwarded through HER responses. I can't describe how much I HATE that woman. At least in the Obama/McCain debate I could watch the whole thing.
(FYI - I'm a progressive independent! And this will be my first time voting for a non-third party candidate)

[mediamarv]

04:21 PM on 10/03/2008

Bonanza for whom??
Show's over, no commercials sold = money lost.
One time event = no residual audience
Headline of this story= meaningless