The TV audience for the senators’ second meeting easily surpassed that of their first debate, which drew an audience of 52.4 million on Friday, Sept. 26.

During the previous presidential campaign, 46.7 million viewers tuned in for President Bush and John Kerry’s second debate on Oct. 8, 2004. 

See more historical debate ratings.

Viewership among Hispanic households grew by 34% — from 8.2% of Hispanic households during the first McCain/Obama debate to 11% during the candidates’ second debate Tuesday night.

Debate viewership among White (+21%) and African American (+9%) households also increased during the second presidential debate.

Coverage of the McCain-Obama debate was carried live on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC-America, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC from approximately 9pm to 10:30pm EST Tuesday night.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Multichannel News, Mediaweek, and TV Week.

The TV audience for the first presidential debate of the 2008 election was roughly 16% smaller than the audience for the first debate between President Bush and John Kerry during the 2004 election, which drew 62.5 million viewers on September 30, 2004. See more historical debate ratings.

ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telefutura, Telemundo, BBC-America, CNBC, CNN, FOX  News Channel, and MSNBC aired live coverage of the McCain/Obama debate from approximately 9pm to 10:45pm EST.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Hollywood Reporter, Media Life, and by the Associated Press.

As they watched the debate, panel members turned a dial between 0 and 100 to indicate their reactions to the candidates’ discussion. 100 indicates a “very positive” response, 0 corresponds with a “very negative” response, and 50 is neutral. Nielsen calculated the average of the 44 respondents’ responses. The panel, and its results, are not part of CBS’s election polling, and the panel is not large enough to be statistically significant according to Nielsen’s standards.

Obama’s discussion of oil independence and health, at roughly 26 minutes into the debate, drew the overall most positive response from the CBS/Nielsen panel.

In contrast, John McCain’s closing comments (92:21 – 95:37) summarizing his qualifications for the presidency and his plans for keeping the U.S. safe drew some of the least positive responses from the respondents. McCain’s high point came just minutes earlier when discussing the importance of success in Iraq. Obama’s lowest response came during his discussion of investing in the American dream.

The candidates’ contentious exchange on energy policy (83:29) also drew negative responses from the CBS/Nielsen panel.

The 22 men and 22 women on the panel had largely similar responses to the debate. In several instances, McCain’s comments drew markedly less positive reactions from female panelists (13:13, 27:53, and 62:57).

When parsed by age, the data indicates that respondents of all ages also showed largely similar responses to the candidates’ comments. However, panelists aged 35-54 occasionally deviated from the norm, registering less positive responses than panelists between the ages of 18-34 and 55-99 when Obama discussed his plan for the financial crisis (approximately 3:30), dealing with Pakistan (53:29 – 54:57), and holding diplomatic talks with countries hostile to the U.S. (68:49 – 70:17).

Panelists’ responses were measured at CBS’s TV City research facility in Las Vegas, using Nielsen technology.

View complete data from CBS and Nielsen’s first debate response panel.

View CBS’s on-air analysis of the panel results.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TV Week.

The combined overall household rating for Friday night’s presidential debate, in 55 of the 56 local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters, was 34.7.

One rating point equals 1% of the total TV audience in a given market.

Coverage of the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, CNN, Telemundo, TeleFutura, BBCA, Fox News, MSNBC, and C-Span.

Previously, Nielsen reported that the combined overall household rating for the top 55 local markets was 33.2. That rating excluded households that viewed the debate on Fox News, MSNBC, and C-Span.

National ratings for Friday night’s debate will be available from Nielsen on Monday.