Breaking Down the Ratings of the 2016 Debates Ahead of the Trump/Biden Debates

With the first debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden quickly approaching, it's time to look at the ratings for the 2016 presidential debates, in which Trump fced off with Hillary Clinton. Keep reading to see how these record-breaking debates performed!

First Debate - Monday, September 26, 2016:

The first debate of the cycle was the biggest of them all, featuring the first head-to-head matchup of Republican businessman and TV host Donald Trump and Democratic Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The two were in the middle of a bitterly-fought campaign, filled with insults and accusations from both campaigns, leading to a tense first debate. Leading into the Hofsrta University-hosteddebate, Secretary Clinton led Trump in the polls, which she would do throughout the debate season. Trump had more speaking time in the debate moderated by Lester Holt from NBC, though most found Clinton to be the winner of the debate, with CNN, PPP, YouGov and Politico all finding double-digit margins naming Clinton the victor of the first faceoff.

Ratings on broadcast were, as expected, massive. It shattered ratings records that were set during the Carter/Reagan campaign, with NBC being the big victors of the night with a 5.4 in the 18-49 demo and over 18 million viewers, growing from a 3.3 and 12 million viewers for The Voice. Far behind, but still extremely strong, was ABC's coverage, which drew a 3.4 in the key demo and 13.5 million viewers, growing a ton from its Dancing with the Stars lead-in (1.8/10.7 million). CBS was close behind ABC with a 3.0 and 12.1 million viewers, though its Kevin Can Wait lead-in was humongous compared to DWTS, assisting CBS coverage. Fox trailed them all, as they usually do for such political events, but still had a solid result with a 1.8 in the demo and 5.6 million viewers, much higher than the 1.2 and 3.7 million viewers for its lead-in, Gotham. Collectively, broadcast drew a 14.0 for the debate in 18-49 ratings and 49.3 million viewers.

As always, there was a plentiful audience on the big three cable news networks, as well. Ratings for any of the three networks didn't come close to topping NBC, but CNN was able to take second overall for the night in the 18-49 demo with a 3.55, a massive number for the cabler. Its 9.9 million viewer count falls behind all of the big three broadcast networks, however. Fox News won cable news coverage in total viewers, but still remained behind NBC, ABC and CBS, and was well behind CNN in the demo. MSNBC, as usual, trailed the other networks heavily with a 1.11 in the 18-49 demo and 4.9 million viewers. In all, the big cable networks attracted an additional 7.0 in the 18-49 demo and 26.3 million viewers on top of broadcast's huge haul.

Network

18-49 Rating

Viewers

Lead-in Rating/Viewers

NBC

5.8

18.16 million

3.3/12.14 million

ABC

3.4

13.52 million

1.8/10.74 million

CBS

3.0

12.08 million

2.7/10.94 million

Fox

1.8

5.57 million

1.2/3.68 million

Network

18-49 Rating

Viewers

CNN

3.55

9.94 million

Fox News

2.35

11.43 million

MSNBC

1.11

4.91 million

Second Debate - October 9, 2016:

Debate two was held a few weeks later. Clinton retained an edge in the polls, but the campaign didn't get any less toxic, and the debate remained a massive event. CNN's Anderson Cooper and ABC's Martha Raddatz moderated the debate together. This debate was held in a town meeting format, with questions from select audience members. One of those audience members, Ken Bone, even became an online phenomenon. Most polls after the debate again showed double-digit margins reporting that Clinton was the victor.

With NBC opting out of the second debate to instead air Sunday Night Football, the ratings picture was significantly different. CBS, which ranked third among broadcast for the first debate, beat out second-place ABC pretty easily, with a 3.8 in the 18-49 demo and 16.5 million viewers, growing from its 60 Minutes lead-in and rating eight tenths ahead of the Tiffany Network's coverage of the first debate. ABC's 2.8 and 11.5 million viewers was a marked decline from the first debate, perhaps thanks to Once Upon a Time being a drastically worse lead-in and NFL competition. In last, Fox doubled its lead-in, a repeat of the long-dead Son of Zorn, with a 2.0 and 5.6 million viewers. In all, broadcast's coverage drew an 8.6 in the key demo and 33.56 million viewers, a massive drop from the first debate, but not one that's entirely unexpected, given it lost its top network.

With their star anchor moderating the debate, CNN saw a hike for debate two, up to 3.99 in the 18-49 demo and 11.4 million viewers, leading the night overall in the demo. Perhaps Trump's base didn't car about this debate as much as Clinton's, as Fox News dropped multiple tenths from the first debate with a 1.94, now at less than half of CNN and below the Fox broadcast network in the demo. MSNBC stayed in last despite a mild rise in both the demo and total viewership. Even with Fox News dropping, the three cable news networks jumped to a 7.1 in the 18-49 demo and 26.9 million viewers overall, the opposite of broadcast's trend. Even with the small rise, it didn't do much to close the gap that remained between the first and second debate.

Network

18-49 Rating

Viewers

Lead-in Rating/Viewers

CBS

3.8

16.46 million

2.6/12.40 million

ABC

2.8

11.51 million

1.2/4.11 million

Fox

2.0

5.59 million

0.9/2.09 million

Network

18-49 Rating

Viewers

CNN

3.99

11.36 million

Fox News

1.94

9.94 million

MSNBC

1.17

5.58 million


Third Debate - October 19, 2016:

The last debate was back to a regular format and was held just weeks before Election Day. It was held in swing state Nevada, and moderated by Fox News's Chris Wallace. Hillary Clinton again retained a lead in the polls heading into the debates, and was declared the winner by most polls by double digits. This was the only debate in which Clinton had more speaking time than Trump, but that didn't stop Trump lines like "nasty woman" and "bad hombres" from becoming well-publicized.

With NBC back in the debate game, they took first place back in a narrow with, with a 3.2 in the 18-49 demo and 9.8 million viewers, trouncing the 1.2/5.2 million for Blindspot, its lead-in and the weakest lead-in for any broadcast debate coverage. However, that was still multiple ratings points and over 8 million viewers behind their coverage of the first debate. ABC was much steadier and was very close behind NBC with a 3.1 in the demo and 9.2 million viewers. The Alphabet Network had the largest lead-in of the broadcast networks, with a 2.0 for Toy Story of Terror helping to boost it. The 2.5 in the demo and 9.3 million viewers for CBS's coverage was down from the network's winning performance for the second debate. Fox was in fourth place with a stable 2.0 in the demo and 6.3 million viewers, their highest audience. In total, the debate drew a 10.8 in the demo and 34.6 million viewers on broadcast, ahead of the second debate but well behind the first debate.

CNN again topped the other cable news networks for their coverage with a 2.7 in the demo and 8.76 million viewers, a marked decline from the second debate. However, perhaps in a worrying sign for the Clinton campaign, the debate jumped on Fox News and saw CNN's smallest margin of victory, with Fox News at a 2.34 in the demo and 11.4 million viewers. MSNBC had their highest 18-49 rating and saw a small viewership decline to 5.55 million viewers. As a whole, cable news drew a a 6.25 in the 18-49 demo and 25.69 million viewers, the smallest numbers in both metrics of the debate season.


Network

18-49 Rating

Viewers

Lead-in Rating/Viewers

NBC

3.2

9.84 million

1.2/5.24 million

ABC

3.1

9.18 million

2.0/6.44 million

CBS

2.5

9.29 million

1.9/8.59 million

Fox

2.0

6.30 million

1.7/6.66 million

Network

18-49 Rating

Viewers

CNN

2.70

8.76 million

Fox News

2.34

11.38 million

MSNBC

1.21

5.55 million

How do you think the first Trump/Biden debate will rate? Stay tuned to The TV Ratings Guide for a prompt ratings report as soon as they're available on Wednesday morning.

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