Nielsen reports the overnight household rating for last night’s presidential debate is a 38.3, meaning approximately 38% of the households in the top 56 markets watched the debate.
Last week’s debate had a 42.1 household preliminary figure, and the first presidential debate had a 34.7. The VP debate’s overnight rating was a 45.0.
One factor for the lower figure may have been because of the NLCS playoff game on FOX (certainly in the Philadelphia and Los Angeles markets). Final ratings should be in around 4pmET.
> Update: TVNewser has also obtained the 9pmET-11pmET averages from the networks and it appears NBC will win the night. Below is the rating/share and total viewers from 9-11ET.
NBC – 5.7/9 9,087,000 Total Viewers
ABC – 5.4/8 8,261,000 Total Viewers
CBS – 5.4/8 8,159,000 Total Viewers
FOX – 4.7/7 7,261,000 Total Viewers (MLB playoffs)