Thursday night's vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden was seen by 69.989 million viewers, the second-largest TV audience for any presidential or vice presidential debate since Nielsen started counting the number of persons watching debates in 1976.
An interesting statistic, and I think that this number could be significant, but I was unable to find any data about WHO was watching (if you find any PLEASE post it in the comments), which I think would much more useful to judge who "won" the debate (whether it was Palin appealing to the more entertainment hungry Americans or Biden appealing to those seeking more knowledge and skill from the Vice President).
One thing people keep missing in these debates is that without the "important" Americans in swing states and throughout the country watching them they don't serve their purpose. No one doubts that Poli Sci junkies like ourselves will spend 90 minutes of our lives watching this, but the question is whether or not the average American was watching (although I think many had to be because the number is so large, but that doesn't mean that the number is any more significant).
2 comments:
I think its difficult to really interpret Nielsen ratings as they would count someone that flipped through the debate for a few minutes as a "viewer". If a "viewer" caught a great point by either Biden or Palin it was a "win" for that candidate.
Steven I think that's a good point.
Furthermore, to add to my original post it is interesting to note that CSPAN and PBS were not counted in the numbers, which might indicate that many real "junkies" who don't want to watch with distorted (and ridiculous) scorecards in the corner of the screen (see CNN), weren't counted in the statistic leading us to believe that the statistic indicates more "average Americans" then I originally though.
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