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The combined overall household rating for Tuesday night’s second presidential debate, in 55 of the 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 42.1.
In comparison, the first debate between Senators McCain and Obama received a much lower household rating (34.7) in the top 55 local TV markets. Last week’s V.P. debate received a 45.0 household rating in the top 55 markets.
One rating point equals 1% of the total TV audience in a given market.
The Nashville market, where the debate was held, had the largest TV audience, with a household rating of 59.2, while the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto, California market had the lowest household rating: 31.8.
Several TV markets in swing states also saw significant household ratings boosts over the first presidential debate. The Milwaukee market had the largest jump, moving up 26 spots in Nielsen’s ranking of debate viewing in the top 55 markets. Household viewing in Indianapolis and Dayton, Ohio (+21 spots in Nielsen’s ranking), Minneapolis (+17 spots), and Cincinnati (+15 spots) also increased significantly from the first to the second McCain/Obama debate.
| Rank (by H.H. rating) |
Market | Market Rank (by population size) |
Household Rating (% of U.S. households that watched debate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nashville | 29 | 59.2 |
| 2 | Memphis | 48 | 55.7 |
| 3 | Baltimore | 26 | 55.6 |
| 4 | West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce | 38 | 51.4 |
| 5 | Richmond-Petersburg | 58 | 49.6 |
| 6 | Indianapolis | 25 | 49.5 |
| 7 | Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws | 43 | 49.4 |
| 8 | Kansas City | 31 | 49.2 |
| 9 | Columbus, OH | 32 | 48.9 |
| 10 | Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle) | 27 | 48.2 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (October 7, 2008). | |||
View ratings for Nielsen’s 55 top local metered markets.
Coverage of the debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama aired on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CNN, Fox News, CSPAN, MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo.
National ratings for Tuesday night’s debate will be available from Nielsen Wednesday afternoon.
This is a very interesting trend. I was to understand that nobody watched the second and third debates because the first one would tell them what they needed to know and most voters will have made up their mind.
Something tells me that this election is far from over. With all the help Barack has been receiving from the MSM, Hollywood and democrat oversampled polls, he should be out of reach. He isn’t – not even close.
The October surprise might be the electorate waking up to realize that Obama is not “the one”.
Do you have any evidence for the claims that Sen. Obama is being “helped” rather than Sen. McCain just being hammered by the media for waging war on them (through no Gov. Palin press conferences in 6 weeks, canceling interviews on antagonistic news channels and railing against the “mainstream media filter”) and that polls are oversampling democrats, or are you just making stuff up to make yourself feel better?
Great news for Obama, since the snap polls all showed that he won the debate handily.
Can we please have some historical context? What were the debate ratings in 2000 and 2004?
[...] NielsenWire » 42% Of Households In Top Local TV Markets Watched McCain and Obama’s Second Debate That is a lot of people. (tags: metrics nielsen television debates) [...]
Some 2004 numbers:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/obama-mccain-first-debate/
1960-present:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/top-ten-presidential-debates-1960-to-present/
(there’s a full Excel chart at the end of that post)
‘Great news for Obama, since the snap polls all showed that he won the debate handily.’
Really? I saw quite a few that said the opposite. Let me fix that for you:
‘Great news for Obama, since the snap polls I looked at all showed that he won the debate handily.’
There you go. No charge.
[...] 13. The debate’s ratings were up 8 points from last time. Hmm. Maybe Don Meredith shouldn’t be singing yet. The story is here. [...]
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