Debate Pulls Ratings Well Above 2000’s

Thursday’s 90-minute debate between President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry drew more than 62 million viewers -- a substantially larger audience than tuned in to watch the first presidential debate of 2000 but still far short of a record.

This week’s ratings from Nielsen Media Research show heightened interest in the White House race. But they don’t approach the record for a presidential debate set Oct. 28, 1980, when about 80.6 million viewers watched Ronald Reagan square off against President Carter.

Still, viewership of Thursday’s presidential debate soared 34% compared with the first debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush. That contest, Oct. 3, 2000, drew 46.6 million viewers.

Thursday’s debate was broadcast live at 6 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC.

For Thursday’s coverage, NBC led the way in total viewers (17.2 million), trailed by CBS (13.5 million), ABC (11.5 million), Fox News Channel (9.6 million), Fox Broadcasting (5.2 million), CNN (4.4 million) and MSNBC (1.2 million). PBS and C-SPAN also covered the debate, although those figures were not immediately available.

The debate was the second-most-watched program in Fox News’ history, bested only by President Bush’s announcement of the bombing of Iraq on March 19, 2003 (9.7 million).

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More interest The first debate between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry was the highest rated since the third debate of 1992:

Year Date Participants Rating 1980 10/28 President Jimmy Carter 58.9 Ronald Reagan 1984 10/7 President Ronald Reagan 45.3 Sen. Walter F. Mondale 10/21 46.0 1988 9/25 Vice President George H.W.Bush 36.8 Gov. Michael S. Dukakis 10/13 35.9 1992 10/11 President George H.W. Bush 38.3 Gov. Bill Clinton, Ross Perot 10/15 46.3 10/19 45.2 1996 10/6 President Bill Clinton 31.6 Sen. Bob Dole 10/16 26.1 2000 10/3 Vice President Al Gore 31.7 Gov. George W. Bush 10/11 26.8 10/17 25.9 2004 9/30 President George W. Bush 39.4 Sen. John F. Kerry

Rating is the percent of all television households tuned to a program

Source: Neilsen Media Research