Second debate notches highest ever ratings in Democratic primary match-up history
Thursday night’s debate on NBC was the highest-rated Democratic primary debate in history, according to overnight ratings.
Although full numbers have not yet been released, CNN Business reported Friday that the second night of the Democratic debate scored a 14.1 overnight rating, making it the highest-rated in history while beating out Wednesday night’s total, which had just fallen shy of the previous record at 12.3.
{mosads}Wednesday night’s viewership topped 15 million, according to CNN, and Thursday’s 18.1 million viewers, according to an NBC News press release.
The previous record for viewership was 15.5 million viewers who tuned in to the first Democratic debate of the 2016 election cycle.
NBC News, which moderated the debate, chose to broadcast concurrently on three separate channels: NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, which likely contributed to the night’s historic numbers.
The debate’s numbers still fell shy, however, of the 24 million record set by Fox News with the first Republican primary debate of 2015, which attracted a staggering viewership due to it being the first debate between now-President Trump and his 2016 Republican primary opponents.
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