Preliminary Ratings: MSNBC Democratic debate the lowest-rated yet

[brooklynite]

Politico:

The preliminary ratings from MSNBC's Democratic debate on Thursday night show that it will likely be the lowest rated debate of the cycle.

According to CNN, Nielsen is reporting a 3.3 overnight household rating. The next lowest household rating for a debate was ABC News' Democratic debate, held the Saturday before Christmas, which had a 6.0 household rating and brought in 7.85 million viewers.

To be sure, MSNBC has less reach than the broadcast networks and CNN, and the debate was quickly put together at the last minute. Promotion for the event did not begin airing until a few days before, so viewers might have been less aware that it was going on.

But it also might show an overall loss of interest in the debates this cycle. Debates on the Republican side have also begun to see a slide in ratings since the explosive highs of the first two debates, though overall, the average debate ratings this cycle remain much higher than in previous election cycles.

We were told the previous debates were scheduled on weekends to keep viewership down, and that if they'd move them to primetime, the viewership would explode.

We were told that people would start paying attention in the last month before voting

What's the excuse now?

[virtualobserver]

1. Having events two nights in a row was confusing

no one would expect that

[UglyGreed]

14. Of course the OP

probably knew that already. Problem is.....................the internet clickety click

[dinkytron]

47. Agree. It confused me. Totally forgot. Especially w/ time diff.

Almost missed it.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

2. Sanders's supporters are awfully quiet right now. nt

[dana_b]

22. what would you like us to say? n/t

[Iliyah]

3. And it was on a Thursday, ummmm, go figure

Maybe weekends would be the best day.

[Jamaal510]

38. C'mon, I thought everyone

knew that Thursday is considered part of the weekend now.

[valerief]

4. People didn't know a debate was on. They expect to switch between a big ballgame

and the debate on a weekend. That's how they've been trained.

[EndElectoral]

5. That's a shame because he crushed her last night.

[Cheese Sandwich]

6. The excuse? It's not clear who you think you're taunting, but it's not working

[yodermon]

7. did you even read your own excerpt? n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

8. To be sure....

To be sure, MSNBC has less reach than the broadcast networks and CNN, and the debate was quickly put together at the last minute. Promotion for the event did not begin airing until a few days before, so viewers might have been less aware that it was going on.

--someone's own link.

[MineralMan]

9. I'm betting that most people have no idea where MSNBC is

on their cable box.

[Bjorn Against]

10. This debate is not comparable to the other debates

All the other debates were announced weeks in advance so there was a lot more anticipation for them. This one was organized last minute and there was not much time to publicize it so many people did not know it was happening.

[TheBlackAdder]

11. Thursday night is going out night for many offices. Weekday exposes to other audiences.

.



I love how people rag that there are more debates to get the Democratic message out there.

It's makes me wonder how democratic people can be, who complain about getting the message out.

Next thing you know, they'll be hanging out at multiple GOP parties in New Hampshire!



A weekday debate exposes people who are not available on the weekends, but having seen so many debates, and participating, I unplugged for the night and spent it with my children.


Tuesday would be optimum, providing it's well published.


.

[Renew Deal]

12. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a genius

We should all be thanking her for the weekend debates.

[CentralMass]

13. Well, I've cut the cord and just have internet and antenna TV. So I went for a run.

[840high]

15. I cut the cord.

[stevenleser]

16. Its really boring to hear Sanders trot out the same stuff over and over.

I'm guessing a lot of folks are sick of hearing the stump speech.

[AgingAmerican]

17. Not enough weather vane for you?

Too consistent for you? My condolences!

[stevenleser]

21. Too one dimensional for me actually. He doesnt know much about a whole lot of things.

He reminds me of Palin. He knows the answer to about 15% of the questions asked and the rest he just pivots to "the billionaires have too much money...99% stuff."

[AgingAmerican]

24. LOL

Suuuure he does!

[Beacool]

28. Anything related to foreign policy: I didn't vote for the Iraq war.

That's a great foreign policy plan.

[stevenleser]

49. Yep, as I've said other places that is a Palinesque kind of pivot

When asked a question for which you haven't the foggiest idea.

[Beacool]

58. That's a comparison no one would want.

[Ed Suspicious]

29. Weathervane is exciting. You never know which way she might point on a given evening.

[Beacool]

59. More exciting than the old Socialist. You never know what empty promises he will make.

See? We can all fall on childish name calling.

Grow up!!!

[Jamaal510]

39. +1

[Fumesucker]

45. I proudly stand with Steven Leser v2.0.08, that dude was a keen judge of character

[Ed Suspicious]

65. Unlike previous versions.

[bunnies]

18. You schedule a debate ONE day in advance and expect people to know about it?

Gimme a break.

[ljm2002]

19. Well let's see now...

...there was a Town Hall event the night before, that was scheduled weeks in advance.

How long was the DNC-sanctioned NH debate on the calendar? Oh yeah, for a few short days before it aired.

Odd that you couldn't reason this out for yourself.

[CorkySt.Clair]

54. Did the pony express not reach you with the news?

[MoonRiver]

20. Secretary Clinton must have cast an evil spell.

After all, everybody knows she's a witch.

[DefenseLawyer]

23. I'll look into it. n/t

[Live and Learn]

35. +10,000

[AgingAmerican]

25. I didn't even know there was a debate until I turned on my TV last night in the middle of it

You love wasting typing space sometimes.

[Thinkingabout]

26. Fact is it was just another reason to complain. I also have other thoughts on why

this debate had low viewership.

[PoliticAverse]

27. From the article you linked to...

To be sure, MSNBC has less reach than broadcast networks and CNN, and the debate was quickly put together at the last minute. The network had little expectation for big ratings. Promotion did not begin airing until a few days before the debate, so viewers might have been less aware that it was scheduled. CNN's town hall on Wednesday, also a last minute addition, brought in 2.7 million viewers.

[ecstatic]

30. One problem is MSNBC doesn't update their programming on the TV Guide in a timely fashion

I'm mainly a DVR viewer. I wanted to DVR the debate, but they had not yet put it on the guide. Had I simply DVR'd Rachel and Lawrence's show instead, nothing would be recorded, and I didn't feel like creating a manual recording.

[CorkySt.Clair]

55. Weird, it was on my guide by Monday night

[grasswire]

31. Lucky for you -- fewer people heard Hillary booed. nt

[cherokeeprogressive]

32. What... you own MSNBC stock?

I wouldn't trade my life for ten of yours.

[Cali_Democrat]

43. "I wouldn't trade my life for ten of yours."

LOL. What an odd reply.

You feeling OK?

Relax, it's just the interwebz.

[NanceGreggs]

33. Well, ya see ...

... it's like this.

Bernie is "the Goldilocks candidate". People won't tune-in to watch him debate if the porridge is too hot or too cold, if the bed is too hard or too soft. It has to be just right.

And some day, when everything is just right, millions of viewers will tune-in and celebrate the fact that for one brief, shining moment in time, the debate was scheduled at the right time, on the right night, in the right cycle of the moon, with the right moderators, the right questions, the right balance, the right venue in the right city, and the right order of introducing the participants.

When everything is just right, viewership will be through the roof - and Bernie's gonna kill.

[Live and Learn]

36. Was that supposed to make some point?

What a silly post.

[Cali_Democrat]

42. LOL!

[Live and Learn]

34. The rush to schedule them and no advertising them? Duh. nt

[yourout]

53. +1....but that upsets the thread meme.

[TSIAS]

37. Way to go, Dems

Glad that lower voter turnout and enthusiasm give you reason to crow.

I do think CNN would have done better.

[Cali_Democrat]

41. So what time should the debates be scheduled?

[NurseJackie]

52. HA! What a silly post! Nobody is celebrating low viewership ...

... it's clearly a post to remind everyone how Bernie's fans were loudly complaining about which days of the week previous debates were held on.

Back then, Bernie's fans were shouting far and wide about how awful it was to schedule a debate on the weekend... and accusing DWS of doing so intentionally to suppress viewers.

Now we see, and we have proof, that such claims were nonsense.

For anyone to try and suggest that this is "crowing" about low viewership is disingenuous. To make such a claim is a cynical effort to distract from the actual purpose of the OP ... namely, that the loudest critics were WRONG.


Go, Hillary! We love you!

[Jamaal510]

40. The average person

doesn't need more than maybe 2-4 debates to make up his/her mind. Even I (being a politics junkie) am pretty much not as glued to them as I was before. Many of the questions are irrelevant to people's day-to-day lives (such as Chuck Todd continuing to bring up HC's emails), and much of the responses are what I've heard before. I can't speak for others, but I think DWS pretty much set the schedule up superbly to give all of our candidates a chance to say what they're about, yet not give the GOP too much ammunition.

[Matariki]

44. What the actual fuck?

What are you talking about, excuses?

What are you even saying? That the limited debate schedule was a good thing? Your post doesn't even make sense.

[Contrary1]

46. I quit MSNBC a long time ago n/t

[book_worm]

48. But maybe in NH it was a big ratings hit.

[CorkySt.Clair]

50. Thursday is a terrible night for TV ratings

Just like Sunday nights.

[Vinca]

51. I didn't watch and here's my excuse:

Hillary's voice drives me up a wall. I can't stand listening to her. I know how both candidates stand on the issues and there's no need to ruin my evening when I can be watching the final episodes of "Downton Abbey" on DVD.

[asuhornets]

57. Or could it be..

you knew Hillary was going to run circles around him-which is what she did-especially on foreign policy..

[Vinca]

60. And, from what I read, he ran circles around her on Wall Street.

[asuhornets]

61. your every day voter could careless about wall street

they are more concern with main street. and Bernie wants to raise taxes on main street voters..

[Vinca]

63. You don't give Main Street voters much credit for common sense.

If your taxes go up $1,000 but you suddenly don't have to pay a $6,000 health insurance premium, you're up $5,000. It's not rocket science.

[treestar]

56. It's because it was never really true

It was always a mere theory to explain why Bernie was behind in the polls. Now that people have heard Bernie and he still isn't winning, we are shifting to the Rigged Election theme.

[NurseJackie]

64. How many more conspiracy theories remain? Eventually they'll run out. Or...

... if it continues, they risk looking desperate. I mean... you can only do that for so long before people start to catch-on to what you're doing.

As I've noted before, people are paying attention. It becomes much harder for a candidate to coast along when the policies, ideas, and promises are subjected to scrutiny.

[TTUBatfan2008]

62. MSNBC has lousy ratings in general doesn't it?

Seems a lot of people didn't even know that debate was on.