8 Million, on 2 Networks, Watch Democrats Debate

By Chris Ariens 

8.03 million viewers watched the PBS NewsHour’s Democratic Debate last night, with the majority watching on CNN, which paid PBS to simulcast the debate. CNN averaged 4.1 million viewers while PBS averaged 3.9 million. The debate, moderated by PBS’ Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, included two breaks: one after introductions and one at the half-way mark. This allowed CNN to squeeze in commercial breaks.

The 8.03 million viewer total is far ahead of the 4.4 million that watched the most recent Democratic debate on MSNBC on Feb. 4., but behind the Jan. 17 debate on NBC which was watched by 10.2 million. The simulcast will also mean CNN was the most-watched cable news network last night.

Here’s the 2016 debate ranker, which includes Nielsen viewership data, along with livestreaming information provided by the networks.

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Debate Network Total Viewers A25-54 Streams
Aug. 6 | GOP Fox News 24,000,000 7,900,000 2,400000**
Sept. 16 | GOP CNN 22,940,000 6,900,000 4,500,000
Oct. 13 | Dem CNN 15,791,000 4,998,000 4,300,000
Oct. 28 | GOP CNBC 14,000,000 3,900,000 ***
Nov. 10 | GOP FBN 13,500,000 3,670,000 2,800,000
Nov. 14 | Dem CBS 8,500,000 2,120,000 1,200,000
Dec. 15 | GOP CNN 18,165,000 5,560,000 3,100,000
Dec. 19 | Dem ABC 7,850,000 1,928,000 ***
Jan. 14 | GOP FBN 11,094,000 2,983,000 1,900,000
Jan. 17 | Dem NBC 10,200,000 3,170,000 1,200,000
Jan. 28 | GOP Fox News 12,466,000 3,467,000 1,350,000
Feb. 4 | Dem MSNBC 4,489,000 1,211,000 TBD
Feb. 6 | GOP ABC 13,181,000 3,384,000 1,300,000
Feb. 11 | Dem PBS (with CNN simulcast) 8,030,000 2,300,000 TBD
Feb. 13 | GOP CBS TBD TBD TBD
Feb. 25 | GOP CNN TBD TBD TBD
Mar. 3 | GOP Fox News TBD TBD TBD
Mar. 6 | Dem CNN TBD TBD TBD
Mar. 9 | Dem Univision TBD TBD TBD

**Users needed to be an authenticated viewer to watch the livestream.
***ABC & CNBC have not shared their livestream data.

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