TV Ratings: Debate Scores For NBC, MSNBC

NBC News and MSNBC has made television history with the most-watched Democratic debate ever, averaging nearly 20 million total viewers across the two networks, according to Nielsen Fast National Data.

Wednesday night’s debate was also the top-rated Democratic debate ever in the key A25-54 demo and attracted 13.5 million live stream viewers, surpassing any previously hosted debate this election cycle. NBC News and MSNBC now claim the top two Democratic debates and top three Democratic debate nights.

The ninth DNC-sanctioned debate of the 2020 presidential election, which also marked former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s debut, averaged 19.658 million television viewers, with 5.310 million in A25-54 and 4.257 million in A18-49 across NBC and MSNBC from 9:00-11:00 pm ET.

NBC’s digital performance also exceeded any of the network’s major political live events since the 2016 election. The debate live stream generated 13.5 million live video streams and nearly 22 million video views across all platforms, including NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, NBC News NOW on OTT devices, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The digital streams translate to an average audience of 417K viewers.

Users engaged an average of 37 minutes watching the livestream debate via on-net platforms, and 66.5 minutes on average via OTT devices on NBC News NOW, according to Adobe Analytics. Users also spent an average of 37 minutes watching the debate via on-net platforms, according to Adobe Analytics. Across OTT devices, NBC News NOW’s users engaged for 66.5 minutes on average.

The Democrats’ debate Wednesday night proved to be the latest challenge for struggling CNN.

As liberal viewers flocked to NBC and MSNBC for the debate, there weren’t many left for CNN, which averaged a dismal 569,000 viewers from 9-11 p.m. ET.