October 5, 2016
SUCH IS THE NATURE OF THE MEDIA PHENOMENON...:
The Kaine-Pence Showdown Was One of the Lowest-Rated Vice-Presidential Debates Ever (Josef Adalian, 10/05/16, New York)
...that only Trump matters, which helped in the primaries but is destroying him in the general.Even with the additional couple million more viewers who caught the debate on C-Span, PBS, and some smaller networks, as well as streaming, the Pence-Kaine debate will end up with a lower rating (and overall audience) than all but the 2000 Dick Cheney-Joe Lieberman and 1996 Al Gore-Jack Kemp wonkfests. It's also down about 25 percent vs. 2012's Joe Biden-Paul Ryan debate (31.9 rating and 51.4 million viewers over 12 networks) and not even in the same universe as 2008's Sarah Palin-Joe Biden spectacular (41.7 rating and 69.9 million viewers over 11 channels). Trump can now (not) sleep soundly tonight knowing that, without his presence, ratings plummet.
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 5, 2016 6:54 PM