As previously reported, 31.6% of all television households nationwide tuned in for John McCain and Barack Obama’s first presidential debate.
A closer look at the minute-by-minute TV ratings, released Wednesday by Nielsen, reveals few peaks or drop-offs in household viewing during Friday’s debate.

 
 
 
 
 
 
According to Nielsen’s analysis, after an early ramp-up in the debate’s first five minutes, the percentage of households watching the debate held steady throughout the remainder of the telecast. 
The percentage of TV households watching the McCain-Obama debate peaked at 32.9% at 9:38pm EST Friday night. 
Debate viewing dropped off significantly after …

According to data from across 11 networks, the first presidential debate on September 26 between John McCain and Barack Obama drew 52.4 million viewers.
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 …

ABC’s post-debate analysis of Barack Obama and John McCain’s first presidential debate was the top-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Friday, September 26, 2008.  The show drew an average of almost 8.3 million viewers.
CBS’s “The Mentalist” claimed second place, with almost 7.9 million average viewers, while NBC’s post-debate coverage rounded out the top three, with just over 7.1 million average viewers.
Post-debate analysis on CBS (6.1 million average viewers) and FOX News (3.9 million average viewers) also made the top ten.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
VOTE2008: ANALYSIS-FRI(S)-09/26/2008
ABC
8,272,000

2
MENTALIST, THE-FRIDAY SP(S)-09/26/2008
CBS
7,896,000

3
DECISION ‘08:PRES ANALSYS(S)-09/26/2008
NBC
7,124,000

4
20/20 SP EDITION-9/26(S)-09/26/2008
ABC
6,891,000

5
CAMPAIGN ‘08-DEBATE …

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 …

In August, videos at JohnMcCain.com attracted more female than male viewers for the first time, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Women accounted for 58% of all unique video viewers on John McCain’s website last month — up from July and June, when they made up 48% and 37% of unique video viewers on the site.
The increase in women video viewers at JohnMcCain.com came during the same month that McCain selected Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
Barack Obama’s website drew consistently large percentages of women video viewers during the summer months, …