TV Ratings: ABC Democratic Debate Draws 14 Million Viewers

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Last night, Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren finally stood next to each other on the debate stage, after being separated during the multiple previous Democratic debates so far.

ABC’s debate, which featured fewer candidates, fewer sounds bite moments of disagreement and a couple of protester interruptions, was watched by an average of 14 million viewers across both and Univision and scored a 10.0 household metered market rating. That represents a 23% bump in rating on the second NBC debate on June 27, but also a 23% decrease on the record-breaking 18.1 million viewers who tuned in to NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.

That viewership figure is down on the first NBC debate which was watched by 15.3 million viewers, but tops the 10.7 million and 9 million who tuned in for the two debates hosted by CNN. None of the Democratic debates so far in this cycle have come near to the 24 million viewership figure posted by Donald Trump’s first debate on Fox News in August of 2015.

Other than Biden and Warren, the other eight candidates to take to the stage last night were New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Calif. Senator Kamala Harris, Minn. Senator Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Thursday night’s slightly tamer affair took place in Houston and was hosted by ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir, ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.