# Are ratings for the presidential debates down?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 7, 2016, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197 "2016-03-07T12:58:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/1 "2016-03-07T12:58:09Z")
I’ve never been a big fan of presidential debates, but this years’ have been particularly painful to watch; I don’t even like seeing excerpts on the news. Am I alone in this, or is this feeling widespread?
Factual question: are the Nielsen ratings down for this year’s presidential debates, or are they pretty much the same as in recent election years?
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### Author:  [@ElderSign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElderSign)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/2 "2016-03-07T14:28:39Z")
If you paid attention and actually followed the campaigns since summer, you would see that the GOP debates are much, much, much higher than 2012 and 2008
The DNC debates are lower.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/3 "2016-03-07T14:32:30Z")
> [@ElderSign](#):
>
> If you paid attention and actually followed the campaigns since summer, you would see that the GOP debates are much, much, much higher than 2012 and 2008
>
> The DNC debates are lower.
Everybody loves a circus.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/4 "2016-03-07T14:39:38Z")
I would expect that the national debates later in the year will be very highly rated.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/5 "2016-03-07T14:43:18Z")
> [@ElderSign](#):
>
> If you paid attention and actually followed the campaigns since summer, you would see that the GOP debates are much, much, much higher than 2012 and 2008
>
> The DNC debates are lower.
😕 Assuming you are talking about rates of viewership (as opposed to levels of intoxication), how would watching the debates help me know this?
Can you provide a link to viewership numbers/Nielsen ratings that confirm your claim?
> [@Omar Little](#):
>
> I would expect that the national debates later in the year will be very highly rated.
I’m not concerned with how the different debates this year stack up against each other; I’m really curious about how average viewership of debates during this election year compares with average viewership during previous election years (2012,2008, 2004, 2000, etc.).
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/6 "2016-03-07T14:55:55Z")
\*\*Eldersign \*\*didn’t say that very friendlily, but the point is that the news media have made a bunch of noise about the high viewership of the R debates this time. Their post mortem for a day or two after each one has lots of segments about the high viewership. So if one watched zero debates but lots of e.g. CNN, one might reasonably be expected to have noticed this info.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/7 "2016-03-07T15:17:02Z")
That fits with what I’ve seen & heard anecdotally. A fairly high level of interest in Trump vs Cruz vs Rubio, but relatively little interest in Clinton vs Sanders.
ETA: Interest in the Republican debates seems to be much higher than in previous elections. Interest in the Democratic debates seems to be either the same or a little lower than in previous elections.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/8 "2016-03-07T15:33:02Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> 😕 Assuming you are talking about rates of viewership (as opposed to levels of intoxication), how would watching the debates help me know this?
>
> Can you provide a link to viewership numbers/Nielsen ratings that confirm your claim?
> .
He didn’t say that you needed to watch the debates, but to listen to the commentary about them.
Link? Why not just Google for literally almost any story about the debates? [This](http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/04/media/fox-news-gop-debate-ratings/)is the first one I got and it’s quite convincing.
Don’t blame your inattention and indifference to fact on others.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/9 "2016-03-07T16:32:22Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Link? Why not just Google for literally almost any story about the debates? [This](http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/04/media/fox-news-gop-debate-ratings/)is the first one I got and it’s quite convincing.
I had tried googling, but of the link titles in the results that I got, all seemed to be about the 2016 presidential debates themselves; none of the titles suggested that they would contain any comparison to previous election cycles. Indeed, the link you provided appears to be mostly ranking debate viewership _within_ the 2016 election cycle.
Consider the article’s opening line:
> [@CNN.com](#):
>
> Thursday’s GOP debate on Fox News was the highest-rated debate of 2016 and the fourth-highest-rated primary debate on record.
Fourth highest in the history of televised presidential debates, or fourth highest during this election cycle? Sounds like the former, but let’s keep reading.
Here’s another claim:
> [@CNN.com](#):
>
> Fox’s very first debate of the season, featuring Trump’s now-famous clash with co-moderator Megyn Kelly on August 6, 2015, attracted 24 million viewers, an astonishingly high total. It remains No. 1 on the overall debate ratings ranker.
Do they mean No. 1 of all time, or No. 1 during this election cycle? Once again, you might think the former, but then check the very next sentence:
> [@CNN.com](#):
>
> The No. 2 debate of the season remains CNN’s September 16 debate…
No. 2 debate _of the season._ Ah, so it sounds like the 8/6/2015 debate was only the number one debate _this season,_ and last Thursday’s debate was No. 4 _this season._
The only references to prior election cycles are these unspecific remarks:
> [@CNN.com](#):
>
> This season’s debates, fueled by Trump, have smashed prior viewership records, resetting expectations for how well debates will rate.
> …
> For Fox, it is the second highest rated night of the channel’s 20-year history, behind last August’s debate night.
OK, so it appears that viewership this time is up, but I was hoping for specifics (I myself should have been more specific about that). Ideally what I would hope to see is a plot comparing average debate viewership (so far) in 2016 with average debate viewership during prior election cycles.
Instead I’m getting shots across my bow. 😕
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/10 "2016-03-07T16:58:54Z")
You know that 2012 was only 4 years ago. You could google ratings for the 2012 debates and get viewership numbers and compare them to the 2016 numbers you’ve already found/
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/11 "2016-03-07T17:26:57Z")
How about this claim from the article I cited?
> [@](#):
>
> For Fox, it is the second highest rated night of the channel’s 20-year history, behind last August’s debate night.
Is that not historically clear enough?
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/12 "2016-03-07T18:05:30Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> You know that 2012 was only 4 years ago. You could google ratings for the 2012 debates and get viewership numbers and compare them to the 2016 numbers you’ve already found/
OK, that’s one. How about 2008? 2004? 2000? Earlier? I’m not asking some other Doper to compile all that for me; I was merely hoping that someone here might be aware of a trend-tracking site or article that aggregated all of this.
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> How about this claim from the article I cited?
>
> > [@CNN.com](#):
> >
> > For Fox, it is the second highest rated night of the channel’s 20-year history, behind last August’s debate night.
>
> Is that not historically clear enough?
No, it is not. I have no idea now viewership over Fox’s 20-year history compares to the other major networks out there.
All I’ve got so far from that article is “This season’s debates…have smashed prior viewership records…”. I concede that the letter of my question has indeed been answered, but it makes me think of this exchange:
Q: “Can you tell me what time it is?”
A: “Yes.”
I was hoping for more.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ratings-for-the-presidential-debates-down/748197/13 "2016-03-07T20:58:15Z")
The “presidential debates” are generally those between the leading candidates for the presidency; whoever has been nominated for the Democrats, likewise for Republicans, and less often a third party candidate. We aren’t far enough for that, we are seeing the debates between people vying for nominations (the “primary debates”).
That seems pedantic and clearly everyone participating in this thread understands this but I point it out for two reasons. Firstly, primary debates are usually given less attention than the debates between nominees, and secondly if you are looking for viewership statistics be sure you’re looking up the right thing.
I don’t think there exists some easy metrics, graphs, and so on because traditionally people don’t care as much at this stage. This election cycle has gotten an extraordinary amount of attention earlier than usual. I don’t know if it is because of the personalities involved or a concerted effort by the media to overhype things. But it has become a huge event when it usually isn’t. I think that’s why people reacted so strongly to your initial suggestion that people aren’t watching the debates. These debates are simply dominating American media and people eat it up.