UPDATE, 2:49 PM: The third Presidential debate of 2012 pulled in 2.7 million more viewers last night than watched the third debate between Barack Obama and John McCain in 2008. Pulling in 59.2 million total viewers, last night’s debate was down 10% from the 65.6 million viewers who watched the second meeting between Obama and Mitt Romney on October 16 and down 12% from the 67.2 million who watched their first debate October 3. NBC led the night Monday with 12.39 million viewers (5.84 million in the adults 25-54 demo) watching the third face-off between President Obama and Romney. ABC came in second with 11.73 million viewers. Fox News Channel was third with almost 11.5 million viewers, an all-time viewership high for the 16-year-old news network. CBS was fourth with 8.43 million viewers overall. ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, PBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Current TV and CNBC all aired the 9-10:30 PM ET debate live last night. Telemundo played it on tape delay. Fox did not broadcast the debate, instead airing Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, which drew 8.1 million viewers. ESPN aired Monday Night Football to 10.7 million viewers. Both sports events were beaten in viewership by NBC, ABC and Fox News’s debate coverage.
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PREVIOUSLY, 10:58 AM: Almost 11.5 million viewers watched the third and final Presidential debate last night on Fox News Channel. That makes Monday’s face-off between President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney the all-time high for any broadcast in the network’s 16-year history. Fox News’ 11.47 million viewers of the 9-10:30 PM ET debate was more than rivals CNN and MSNBC’s audiences put together, according to Nielsen. Fox News also drew 3.43 million in the adults 25-54 demographic. CNN attracted 5.8 million viewers overall (2.5 million in 25-54), and MSNBC had 4.06 million (1.7 million in 25-54). Fox News took the top spot among cable networks for all the Presidential debates this year.
Fox News’ numbers for the foreign-policy-focused debate were up from the 11.1 million it pulled in for the second debate between Obama and Romney on October 16. That broadcast was tied with the 2008 Vice Presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden as Fox News’ former all-time high rating. The second Presidential debate had an overall audience of 65.6 million viewers on 12 networks, down from the 67.2 million who watched the first debate October 3. Fox News drew 10.4 million viewers for that one.
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The third debate of the 2008 Presidential campaign was watched by a total of 56.5 million viewers on 12 networks. Like last night’s debate, that match-up between Obama and John McCain was moderated by CBS’s Bob Schieffer. Fast nationals had Monday’s third Presidential debate down double digits on ABC, NBC and CBS compared with the second debate. For the first time this season, Fox did not broadcast the debate, instead showing Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. (Fox also did not show the third debate in 2008, again airing baseball playoffs.) ESPN also had Monday Night Football last night. With that in mind, we will update with more reliable broadcast network debate numbers later today.
To Dominic, the author of this article…actually some FOX affiliates that have two stations in their markets did air the debate. In Chicago, while game 7 aired on FOX, the debate aired on the Mynetwork TV affiliate, both owned by the same company. I believe others followed suit as well for those with duopolies.
This was also the case in Los Angeles. Not that it matters since California is already so deep in the tank for Obama (which has spared us from the carpet bombing ad wars of the “swing states”.)
I don’t care for snarky coming out of an elected official. No class, just sass, and that’s not a leader. We can do better.
Not only can we do better but we will do better. We’re Americans. We don’t put up with this crap.
LOL @ Republicans saying no one watched this debate. Once again reality hits them hard.
Who said this? Never heard anyone said that. Like proof, please.
Suzy
I can only say you have never watched fox news. I switched to fox 2 yrs ago. When I discovered their the only major news outlet that gives both sides of a subject. Then points out what lies both sides told. I really feel sorry you don’t have time to get your facts before you shoot your mouth off.
I do not watch Fox news very often, but have on occasion. From what I’ve watched, they have been so horribly biased toward the right, all I could was laugh and change the channel shortly thereafter. I’m not sure when these unbiased news shows air on Fox, but I don’t believe I have not heard one unbiased opinion on that channel in my life.
I have not heard one unbiased opinion on Fox in my life.
It is a tragedy that Americans get their news from a news network that is so biased and deceiving as Fox News. Fox News could not be licensed in Canada because Canada has a regulation that will not broadcast news networks that lie and are deceiving. US used to have those laws until deregulation of some FTC rules. It would be a service to this country if Fox News was not allowed to broadcast here unless they were willing to tell the truth!
Amen Suzy!!!!!!
As a Canadian, I assure you this is 100% false. The national broadcaster CBC is chock-full of lies and propaganda, and they’re still on the air.
Is that you Chris Matthews?
I second that.
I wish every reporter had the integrity of Will McAvoy on THE NEWSROOM. Too bad he’s just a fictional character and we no longer have the Edward R. Murrows around.
So MSNBC couldn’t get a licensed either, they’re whores for the Democrats.
That “There is no Fox News in Canada” lie has been debunked over and over again, especially by Canadians who watch Fox News regularly on their TVs. Perhaps you should actually look up the truth (which is easily Googled) rather than repeating a lie you probably saw on Facebook.
and MSNBC isn’t biased and deceiving? Lets at least be honest here.
Oh yes, I am so glad we have all the other bastions of non partisanship news outlets like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC. /sarc In fact if you took off all of those networks and compared them to Fox you would see that the news they give is the exact same information that comes from the White House, so why have the middle men, simply merge them all into one big Government News Service. It would of course be required watching, along the lines of Pravda.
See tools like yourself dont understand that News Services are suppose to give FACTS, not the Truth, which is what someone believes something to be, and explains why you are a Liberal.
You are such a twit!! Give me one example that shows Fox News in a lie!! Last night, Fox News did the homework and found that President Obama WRONG/FALSE pertaining to three of his answers to Mitt Romney. Fox News is Fair and Balanced (sheepish smile) and the only real news channel on TV. Get it together.
Rick