Thursday night marked the second of two Democratic debates hosted by NBC News, and it was filled with heated discussions of immigration, police brutality, the economy, and racial justice. But just how many people watched the Democratic debate on Thursday? According to figures from a data analytics company called Nielsen, night two of the debates broke records.
Preliminary data from Nielsen indicates that 18.1 million people watched the second round of the debate across NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo, the Los Angeles Times reported, making it the most-watched Democratic debate in television history — and even more people tuned in to online livestreams. The previous viewership record for a Democratic debate took place in October 2015, when five Democratic candidates faced off as 15.4 million people watched. On Thursday night, there were twice as many candidates, and more viewers than ever before.
Thursday night’s viewership data also illustrated a 15 to 20% increase from Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, which had approximately 15.3 million viewers. According to The Washington Post, the high Nielsen ratings that the NBC debates achieved are critical to network success, because better ratings can bring in additional advertising revenue. In the case of a debate, meanwhile, these ratings can convince a major political organization like the Democratic National Committee to continue partnering with the network, per The Washington Post.
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