To put this into perspective: During the same time slot as the debate, about the same number of people watched either the Baylor-Oklahoma football game on ABC or the Oregon-Stanford game on Fox.
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Viewer interest in the primary debates of both parties remains higher than previous years, with the second Democratic get-together of 2015 drawing a good-for-Saturday 8.55 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen estimates. Four years ago on the second Saturday of November, a Republican primary debate on CBS averaged 5.48 million viewers, and a mid-November Democratic debate on CNN in 2007 drew a little over 4 million. Critics have contended that Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultzis purposely hiding and limitingdebates in order to perpetuate a coronation forHillary Clinton.
CBS brought in 2.12 million in the adults 25-54 demo, also the lowest of the six debates so far and less than half what the first Democratic debate drew. CNN’s pre-debate coverage spanned several days.
Saturday’s debate was the first for either party to be televised by a broadcast network this election cycle. Normally, this would be a dud of a time slot, since it’s basically a Saturday.
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The Democrats’ audience was nowhere near what the Republicans’ most recent debates have drawn, airing on CNBC and Fox Business Network, which are available in fewer households than CBS. Subsequent Republican debates have reached progressively smaller audiences.
