Biden-Ryan debate draws fewer viewers than Obama-Romneyhttp://reut.rs/RiqMNF
5:35 PM - 12 Oct 12 · Details
Biden-Ryan debate draws fewer viewers than Obama-Romney
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LOS ANGELES | Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:26pm EDT
(Reuters) - About 46 million Americans watched Thursday's feisty clash between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Paul Ryan, according to early TV ratings, down sharply from the audience for the first presidential debate last week.
The vice-presidential match-up on issues ranging from the economy to foreign policy and abortion, was seen live by 28.3 million Americans on the four main U.S. networks and about 18.5 million on the three largest cable news outlets, preliminary Nielsen figures showed on Friday. Final figures, including data from smaller networks, will be available later on Friday.
The October 3 debate between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney drew a TV audience of 67.2 million, putting it among the 10 most-watched debates of the past 30 years.
The Biden-Ryan debate also fell far short of the audience for the 2008 vice-presidential encounter between Biden and Republican Sarah Palin. That debate was watched by 69.9 million, tying it for the second-most viewed debate since Nielsen began collecting such data in 1976.
According to the media research company, the most-watched debate since 1976 was the October 1980 encounter between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, which drew 80.6 million viewers.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Peter Cooney)
