Viewership down slightly in second US presidential debate

More than 65 mn viewers watched second debate, which is about 2 mn less than the first one

With an estimated 65.6 million viewers, the television viewership for Tuesday's presidential debate between US President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney dipped slightly than the first one early this month.

More than 65 million viewers watched the second debate, which is about two million less than the first one which had 67.2 million viewers, the Nielsen Ratings said yesterday.

According to Rentrak Corporation, total viewing audience fell from 49.1 million households during the first debate to 48.0 million households during the second debate.

People did watch more of the debate this time with 75.7% of the total minutes of the debate being watched by the average home, up from 73.0% during the first debate.

 

In terms of the traditional average audience rating in the first debate, it was a 31.2 which grew slightly to 31.7 during the second debate, it said.

The final debate, covering foreign policy, will be held on October 22 and will be moderated by CBS correspondent, Bob Schieffer.