The combined overall household rating for Thursday night’s vice presidential debate, in 55 of the 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 45.0.
One rating point equals 1% of the total TV audience in a given market.
The Baltimore market had the largest TV audience, with a household rating of 59.1, while the Los Angeles market had the lowest household rating: 34.4.
| Rank (by H.H. rating) |
Market | Market Rank (by TV H.H. population) |
Household Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baltimore | 26 | 59.1 |
| 2 | St. Louis | 21 | 58.3 |
| 3 | Boston (Manchester) | 7 | 54.3 |
| 4 | Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws | 43 | 53.9 |
| 5 | Nashville | 29 | 53.4 |
| 6 | West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce | 38 | 53.4 |
| 7 | Kansas City | 31 | 53.2 |
| 8 | Richmond-Petersburg | 58 | 52.1 |
| 9 | Pittsburgh | 23 | 51.9 |
| 10 | Detroit | 11 | 51.8 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (October 2, 2008). | |||
View ratings for Nielsen’s 55 top local metered markets.
Coverage of the debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden aired on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CNN, Fox News, CSPAN, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and Telefutura.
National ratings for Thursday night’s debate will be available from Nielsen Friday afternoon.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by the Associated Press and in The Wall Street Journal.
[...] Nearly sixty percent of local households tuned into last night’s veep debate at Washington University, according to Nielsen ratings released today. [...]
What about Alaskan households?
People want to see for themselves because they’re rightfully suspicious of the media portrayal of Palin.
[...] Audience for VP Debate Nielsen found the overall rating for last night’s vice presidential debate was 45.0 — much higher than the [...]
[...] is reporting last night’s VP debate is registering a 45.0 in the 55 (out of 56) metered local markets, [...]
[...] Who watched? Just about everybody that’s going to vote. [...]
[...] ratings are in for 55 cities and the Biden/Palin debate drew a much larger audience than the first Obama/McCain [...]
All West Coast markets are going to do badly because the debate is at 6 p.m. and most Angelenos are still stuck in traffic and are listening to the debate on the radio, if they are doing so at all. This is why all awards shows and the Olympics are tape delayed.
Fox News and Drudge Report both indicate that Sarah Palin won the debate….yet mainstream media keeps citing that Joe Biden won per ABC and CNN polls. Given that Fox had the highest viewership, don’t you think that their polling deserves some recognition?
LoveMyGOP
I would if it were almost any other station (except MSNNBC), when a news channel has anobvious bias it can be expected to be ignored.
If MSNBC came out with a Biden wins and all the rest said that Palin won you would ignore that as well.
[...] Hmm…now this is fascinating, the top ten cities that were watching the debate: NielsenWire 45% Of Households In Top Local TV Markets Watched Palin and Biden’s V.P. Debate Baltimore, St Louis, Kansas City, Boston, Norfolk/Portsmith/Newport News, Nashville, West Palm [...]
[...] has kindly released the complete video of last night’s Vice Presidential debate, watched by a record 69.9 million viewers, for your viewing [...]
It’s pretty easy really. If you’re a leftist you listen to NPR and watch PBS. If you’re liberal you watch CNN, NBC, CBS. If you’re left-leaning moderate you watch ABC. If you’re independent or right wing you watch Fox. Lefties are split between ABCCNBCBS, that leaves the rest to watch Fox.
Bill:
That’s the most ignorant analysis of news viewership I have seen in ages. By definition an independent isn’t going to be tied down to one specific network to get their news and I hate to tell you there are plenty of Republicans and conservatives who enjoy watching the News Hour on PBS–my dad was in the Air Force for over two decades and voted Republican all his life (until this year, he thinks the Iraq war is idiotic and although McCain was his man in 2000 the McCain of 2008 disappoints him) and he watches the News Hour, BBC, Fox, CNN, and MSNBC. Are there more liberal listeners/viewers of NPR/PBS? Of course but they are not a majority because there is no majority for those two networks as plenty of Independents and Republicans prefer a thorough analysis of the world’s and America’s events that doesn’t devolve into a diatribe against the opposition. I hate to tell you but the world is not so black and white nor is it divided along the ideological lines the media likes to promote because us vs. them creates more ratings than a nuanced discussion of matters.
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