That’s how many people watched Friday’s debate:
According to data from across 11 networks, the first presidential debate on September 26 between John McCain and Barack Obama drew 52.4 million viewers.
The TV audience for the first presidential debate of the 2008 election was roughly 16% smaller than the audience for the first debate between President Bush and John Kerry during the 2004 election, which drew 62.5 million viewers on September 30, 2004
Of course how people view news has changed a lot since 2004, an Nielsen doesn’t measure that very well:
Nielsen’s measurement of the home audience does not include out-of-home viewing parties, television repeats or Internet streams of the debate. C-SPAN’s video of the debate has elicited more than half a million views on YouTube.
Add in to that the fact that the debate took place on a Friday night, and the drop-off from 2004 may not be all that surprising.
