TV Ratings Down 20 Percent

NEW YORK (AllPolitics, Oct. 7) -- A substantially smaller television audience watched Sunday night's first presidential debate than did four years ago.

Preliminary and partial Nielsen ratings suggest ratings were down about 20 percent.

Ratings covering 33 cities, with about half the U.S. population, suggested the audience for the Clinton-Dole face-off as aired by the networks averaged a 33.8 rating.

While no total viewership conclusions can be inferred from the early, overnight results, the numbers can be compared with equivalent figures for the debate of Oct. 15, 1992. For that debate, the cumulative rating for ABC, CBS and NBC was 43.9, indicating a drop of about 23 percent this year. The Nielsen numbers for the entire country are expected to be released Tuesday.

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