The scrappy Sunday night matchup between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton was a sight for anyone who tuned in — but early ratings show that viewership was down from the first debate.
With 10 networks reporting adjusted ratings for the night, viewership clocked in right around 63.6 million viewers. That’s off nearly 25 percent from the record-breaking ratings of the first debate.
Chatter about the debate was huge on social media.
Trump’s first face-off with Clinton drew 84 million viewers, beating the high mark of 80.6 million set by Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in 1980. So far, the most-watched second presidential debate logged 69.9 million viewers. That was the Oct. 15, 1992, event featuring George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. Obviously, this one failed to top that one.
One big factor in the drop in the numbers for Sunday night’s slugfest — a town hall format co-moderated by Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz — was the fact that NBC, a top political outlet, didn’t carry the debate, opting instead to air the Sunday night football game between the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers.
Also competing for viewers: Major League Baseball’s playoffs and the fact that the debate occurred during the Columbus Day weekend, when some people travel. (Many schools are closed for Columbus Day.)
Debate ratings also will be impacted by Hurricane Matthew coverage pre-emptions in some larger markets in the south, notes Deadline.com, including Jacksonville, Orlando, Norfolk, and Raleigh-Durham.
[lz_bulleted_list title=”Second Presidential Debate Viewership” source=TV Newser]2012 – 65.6M viewers|2008 – 63.2M viewers|2004 – 46.7M viewers|2000 – 37.6M viewers|1996 – 36.3M viewers|1992 – 69.9M viewers|1988 – 67.3M viewers|1984 – 67.3M viewers|1980 – no second debate|1976 – 63.9M viewers[/lz_bulleted_list]
Chatter about the debate was huge on social media, though.
Facebook reported that between 9:03 p.m. and 10:37 p.m. EDT, about 20 million users in the United States were commenting, liking, and sharing content, making it “the most talked-about debate on Facebook — ever.”
The same thing was true on Twitter. “Tonight’s #debate was the most tweeted ever,” the company said, “with more than 17 million debate-related tweets sent.”
[lz_third_party includes=https://twitter.com/gov/status/785309872829104129 align=center width=530]
Twitter also announced that Sunday was “the most tweeted day of the entire 2016 election, with nearly 30 million tweets sent.”
Trump dominated the online chatter, garnering a larger “share of conversation” than Clinton.
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