Nielsen estimate: 57 million people watched debate

[babylonsister]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/53179.html

Nielsen estimate: 57 million people watched debate

By Glenn Garvin | Miami Herald


Preliminary Nielsen data from 55 cities where it operates so-called "people meters," set-top boxes that monitor television viewing, shows that a third of all TV sets were tuned into Friday night's debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Nielsen won't release final data until Monday, but if the trend from the 55 metered markets holds steady, it would mean about 57 million people watched the debate.

The city with the highest percentage of viewers was St. Louis, where 52 percent of the TVs were tuned to the debate, reflecting either an inordinate civic-mindedness or a complete lack of actual lives, take your pick. The lowest was Phoenix, with only about 24 percent, which might mean that they're confident their guy McCain has already won, or that they're sick of him, take your pick again. South Florida was somewhere in the middle, with about 37 percent of the TVs on the debate.

Here's the complete list of Nielsen's metered markets. "Rating" means the percentage of all TV sets that were tuned to the debate; "share" is the percentage of TV sets that were actually in use that were tuned in.

[Eurobabe]

1. Let's hope 56,999,999 are not stupid

statistically there has to be a rotten apple in the bunch.

[johnaries]

2. It was also mentioned that it was broadcast around the world,

in many cases LIVE. Including Iran (hee-hee).

[Cattledog]

3. Low numbers

The first debate for the 1960 election drew over 66 million viewers out of a population of 179 million. In 2004, 62.5 million people watched the first debate.

[Joe the Revelator]

4. Friday night lights

[Writer]

6. Dude, you don't understand - in today's saturated market those numbers are HUGE!

An 82 share in St. Louis? That means that 82% of the people watching television at the time of the debate were tuned in to see the debate on one of the networks listed. That's very impressive.

I would never, never compare numbers from an era when there were three broadcast networks only to today's 500+ channel universe.

~Writer~

[1corona4u]

5. I thought they said it would be much more though...

like 100 million? That's what they expected I think....but I think it's funny that their stats came from Nielsen, when they only have 25K Nielsen families in the US...HENCE "Nielsen estimates". Which means, they don't fucking have a clue.