The debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden drew nearly 70 million US television viewers, far more than the John McCain-Barack Obama bout, making it the most watched vice presidential debate ever, Reuters has reported quoting ratings issued on Friday.
Some details:
The television audience for the Republican Palin and Democrat Biden also was the biggest for any nationally televised political debate in 16 years, going back to a face-off among then-President George HW Bush, Democrat Bill Clinton and independent Ross Perot. Their three-way match in October 1992, like the Palin-Biden contest, pulled in 69.9 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said.
Nielsen analyst Anne Elliot suggested that nearly 70 million viewers in 1992 stands as a bigger achievement given there were roughly 60 million fewer potential viewers in the United States to draw from then.
The tally for the Palin-Biden bout in St. Louis on Thursday night easily eclipsed the 52.4 million viewers who tuned in last Friday for the first debate between the Republican presidential nominee McCain and Democrat Obama.
The most watched televised presidential debate on record was the 1976 bout between President Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, which drew 80.6 million viewers.
The Palin-Biden debate still earns a place in the Nielsen record books as the most watched ever between vice presidential candidates, eclipsing the old benchmark held by the first woman on a major-party ticket, Geraldine Ferraro, and the Republican incumbent at the time, George H.W. Bush. Their showdown in 1984 averaged 56.7 million viewers.
