Joe Biden-Paul Ryan debate ratings off from ’08 Sarah Palin duel

Plenty of viewers wanted to see Vice President Joe Biden face off against GOP challenger Paul D. Ryan Thursday night.

But neither man has the pull of Sarah Palin.

According to Nielsen, a total of 51.4 million total viewers watched the 90-minute Biden-Ryan debate moderated by Martha Raddatz and carried on 12 networks.

That was an impressive number but nowhere near the nearly 70 million who saw Biden and Palin duel in 2008.

Fox News came out on top of all the networks offering this year’s sole vice presidential debate, with 10 million total viewers.

That was more than MSNBC (4.4 million) and CNN (4.1 million) combined.

Among broadcasters, CBS was No. 1 with 8.3 million viewers.

What did you think of Thursday’s debate?

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