Current Debate Ranking…
Factoring in MSNBC’s debate into the rankings of all cable news debates, MSNBC’s Democratic debate last night ranked fifth according to Live+SD ratings.
1. 9/5/07 on FNC (GOP), 3.202 million viewers
2. 6/3/07 on CNN (DEM), 2.783 million viewers
3. 7/23/07 on CNN (DEM), 2.566 million viewers
4. 5/15/07 on FNC (GOP), 2.545 million viewers
5. 10/30/07 on MSNBC (DEM), 2.465 million viewers
If you factor in broadcast debates, MSNBC’s debate last night came in 6th according to Live ratings…
As these debates occur on different days of the week and at various time periods and up against various other programs, it’s somewhat problematic to make direct comparisons. For example FNC’s last debate was on a Sunday night and was up against Sunday Night Football and Game 7 of the American League Championship. But despite the heavy competition it still pulled in 2,367,000 viewers.
Will MSNBC wake up before it is too late? There are not enough far left nuts (thank God) for them to get a good showing. Dump Olby, dump Matthews and start from scratch.
Comment by Tom P — October 31, 2007 @ 7:15 pm
What numbers are you looking at Tom P? In fairness Spud, Fox faced competition from Desperate Housewives and Game 7 of the ALCS. Football had a relatively bad night that week, well below its average. The MSNBC debate had just as stiff competition, facing off against Dancing with the Stars and House.
Comment by randy — October 31, 2007 @ 7:36 pm
That almost 2.5 mil has got to be the very largest audience MSNBC has ever had for ANYTHING!!!!! Yet they have not yet rerun the debate (to my knowledge, anyway).
I hear it was quite a fiasco, and for once, Mrs. Bill Clinton was challenged; Kucinich and Richardson apparently had words; Dodd flared up, etc. Could someone please let us know if they hear of any plans MSNBC has to rerun the debate? I really want to see this one!
Comment by Missy — October 31, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
Two differences with last night’s debate:
1) Tim Russert
2) He was sitting.
MSNBC should take note.
Comment by erljr — October 31, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
All things considered, MSNBC did alright for themselves last night.
At least they got the candidates to mix it up a bit…first time they really went after each other on issues and such on the Democratic side in these debates.
Also, with about 2 months to go before the Iowa caucus, I think more people are starting to pay attention.
Still a long way to go before they pull Fox numbers, but not the disaster the AFL-CIO debate was.
Comment by FishOil — October 31, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
I just found out the debate can be seen at CSPAN, if anyone else is interested:
http://www.c-span.org/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=debate
Comment by Missy — October 31, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
It was a fantastic debate, very interesting. John Edwards was blood thirsty, and Obama went after Hillary, while still able to maintain his above the fray image. Oh, and Kucinich confirms he saw a UFO. Biden and Obama had the best lines of the night. Biden saying that there are three things in the Rudy sentence, a noun, verb and 9/11. Obama’s was a response to the UFO thing where he said that all he knows is there is life here on earth we arent attending too. Clinton was on the defense all night long from everybody except Richardson who inexplicably had his head half way up her ass yesterday (Somebody is looking for VP). Bad night for CLinton, good night for Edwards, Obama, and Biden.
Comment by randy — October 31, 2007 @ 9:22 pm
Bad night for CLinton, good night for Edwards, Obama, and Biden.
Randy: I guess Biden went from a 0.7% to 0.8% in the polls!!
Comment by Ira — October 31, 2007 @ 10:13 pm
It wasn’t a good night for Hillary. She screwed up a bit. I wish she would stop being so wishy washy with her answers. She’s trying to please Democrats on both ends of the spectrum, and that’s just opening her up for more criticism. She needs to move more towards the center and stay consistent.
I did like Joe Biden in the debate though. There isn’t anything funny about 9/11, but he was hardly lying with his comments in regards to Rudy Giuliani.
Comment by Lark22 — October 31, 2007 @ 10:38 pm
Ira, the second tier candidates cant seem to make any press for what they say on issues (even though the second tier is superior on thoes things to the top tier). They need those one liners that make the biggest splash or laugh that gets them positive press.
Comment by randy — October 31, 2007 @ 11:45 pm
WAIT WAIT WAIT… How has this story been up here for over 5 hours… and nobody said this?
WHY IS MSNBC IN BOLD?!!!
After all the complaining and b**ching from people about ratings coming in with FNC in “bold”… MSNBC shows up in bold, and the masses are quiet? Where are the conspiracy theories? Where are the “it must be” or “clearly its” that we saw earlier?
Sheesh!
Comment by ImNotBlue — November 1, 2007 @ 12:31 am
I can’t believe MSNBC is in bold!!! This is clearly a conspiracy by the far left smear machine. So there!!
Comment by Jim Rucker — November 1, 2007 @ 12:04 pm