Impressive numbers
Apparently the Palin-Biden debate was must-see TV:
Thursday’s debate was…
– 33% higher than Friday’s top-of-the-ticket debate between John McCain and Barack Obama (52.4 million).
– 61% higher than the 2004 vp debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards (43.6 million).
– 23% higher than the 1984 match up between George Bush and Geraldine Ferrarro (56.7 million), the former title-holder for the most-watched vp debate.The Biden-Palin summit was expected to overthrow Friday’s presidential debate in viewers due to questions about Palin’s readiness and because the vp match was held on a Thursday — television’s most-watched night of the week. But this ratings blowout exceeds industry expectations. The audience response puts the election back onto the historic and record-breaking ratings territory that characterized the convention coverage.
The Nielsen measurement includes viewers watching the debate live on 11 networks — NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CNN, Fox News, CSPAN, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and Telefutura.
ABC drew the largest debate audience with 13.1 million viewers. Among broadcast networks, ABC was followed by NBC (12.8 million), CBS (11.1 million) and Fox (4.5 million).
On cable, Fox News led with 11.1 million — the most-watched telecast in the network’s 12-year history. CNN drew 10.7 million, the channel’s third most-watched telecast ever. MSNBC had 4.4 million. In addition, PBS projects 3.5 million viewers watched its coverage. Friday night may have been the most-watched debate since Reagan vs. Carter (80.6 million). The total from last night is 69,989,000 viewers.
Palin seems to be willing to go after Senator Obama harder than McCain (via Fox): “Some of his comments that he has made about the war that I think may in my world disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief…Some of his comments about Afghanistan and what we are doing there supposedly -– just air raiding villages and killing civilians. That’s reckless.” Governor Palin would appear possibly once again have made it John McCain’s race to win or lose.
October 4th, 2008 at 7:24 am
McCain Campaign, more comments re: Obama’s recklessness, please.
October 4th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Governor Palin would appear possibly once again have made it John McCain’s race to lose.
I don’t see evidence that it’s McCain’s race to lose, and I’d have mixed feelings if it were. He had to run a near-perfect campaign to pull off the upset, but he strikes me as a loose cannon rather than a maverick. (I’m questioning his suitability for highest office, not his heroism or patriotism.)
At 68 (two significant figures), the Intrade Obama contract is at its all-time closing high and appreciably above the 60 near which it hovered in August. Intrade’s Electoral College is an Obama runaway.
In 2004 I thought Obama might be a Paul Tsongas with charisma; today he worries me greatly. Nevertheless, McCain’s behavior when the financial crisis broke was so erratic that I’d hesitate to give him access to our nuclear arsenal.
I envisioned Governor Palin stepping on the national stage in 2012 at the earliest, but McCain put her there this year. Her opponents obviously wanted to permanently discredit her before she got her footing, but fortunately they did not succeed. I wish the gov well and hope she goes on to earn my future support.