First Debate Viewer Ratings

Nielsen released its estimates on viewership from the first presidential debate, and the ratings were predictably down from previous debates. An estimated 52.4 million viewers saw this year’s first debate, relative to 62.5 million who watched the first debate in 2004.

Interestingly, it is still not clear whether Nielsen’s methodology has factored inthe growth of online video. In particular, C-Span’s YouTube video of the debate had over 600,000 views:

In the footnotes of the report, they highlighted the addition of BBC-America, Telemundo and Telefutura to their counts, but there was no accounting for streaming media. Another point to keep in mind is that last year’s second debate also fell on a Friday, and attracted only 46 million viewers – adding another variable into the mix. Topping the network ratings, ABC had just over 11 million viewers while Fox and CNN led the cable ratings with 8 and 7 million viewers respectively.