Presidential Debate Viewership History

However the viewership numbers of these subsequent events did not match the high set by the first debate.

Presidential debate viewership history. 28 1980 in their only televised bout of the year jimmy carter and ronald reagan set a still standing presidential debate record with 80 6 million total viewers. The first obama romney debate was the most watched presidential debate in american history drawing 46 2 million households and bumping the 1980 carter reagan debate from number one. The first debate between president donald trump and democratic nominee joe biden did not live up to the hype of being the most watched in us history with a 35 drop off from the first one in 2016 according to nielsen. More recently the first obama romney debate in.

Presidential debate viewership falls from 2016 to 73 1 million. But how will this first presidential duel of the 2008 election compare with the most watched debates of the last half century. Jimmy carter left and gerald ford right debate domestic policy at the walnut street theatre philadelphia september 23 1976. This chart shows the estimated tv viewership of u s.

Jimmy carter and ronald reagan s october 28 1980 debate claimed the largest television audience 80 6 million viewers since 1976 the first year that nielsen collected tv viewership data for presidential debates.