by Mark Silva
The debate goes on about who won the debate, but the answers are starting to roll in about who was watching John McCain debate Barack Obama last night: One third of all households in the nation's top TV-viewing markets.
In some places, interest was more intense: Missouri is a critical state in this election, and more than half the TVs in St. Louis were tuned in: 52 percent.
Oddly enough, in a contest in which the Republican nominee hails from Phoenix, Arizona, the Phoenix market registered the lowest household rating in the big markets: 24.8 percent.
Among 55 of the nation's 56 top markets, debate viewership ran at 33 percent of all households. (Houston's could not be measured because of the impact of Hurricane Ike.)
Considering that the 90-minute debate was carried by ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, CNN, Telemundo, TeleFutura, and BBCA, it seems that other 66 percent of households in the big TV markets had to go out of their ways to find something else.
For more on the top debate-watching markets (Memphis, Baltimore and more) see the initial Nielsen report. The full national TV rating will be available on Monday.
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Comments
Arizona has better things to do than listen to McCain. that should say something to the rest of us.
If the debate on who won has you stressed out. Go register some bops against your least favorite candidate at
http://www.boppoll.com.
I feel pretty good about adding 500 bops to my McLeast favorite candidate today.
Posted by: Arizona has heard it all before! | September 27, 2008 12:38 PM
I was surprised to read that some have the opinion that Obama looked angry. What I saw was McCain looking very uptight, tight jaw, and could not even look at Obama. Obama appeared to hold composure - we live in Canada and very concerned how your bailout will effect us. Think McCain does alot of posturing then votes differently according to his records
Posted by: wendy donald | September 27, 2008 1:30 PM
McCain couldn't make eye contact -- a sign of suppressed rage or fear?
Either way, he did not look presidential.
Obama did a great job and said the things I wanted to hear.
GO BARRY! GO BARRY! GO BARRY!
Posted by: Soccer Mom in CO | September 27, 2008 10:49 PM
Maybe Arizonans have made up their minds already. Debtaes usually are rote and don't move many people either way.
Posted by: Donny | September 28, 2008 6:15 AM