McCain-Obama II Strikes Ratings Gold

The ratings are out, and the 2nd Presidential Debate of 2008 between John "Surge" McCain and Barack "That One" Obama are even better than the 1st Presidential Debate of 2008 which I wrote about a couple weeks ago. Nielsen says that over 63 million viewers watched this week's debate. That number swells to 66 million if you count PBS viewership, which Nielsen doesn't. Once again, ABC fetched the largest total with 13.2 million, and again MSNBC saw the lowest reported total of the networks with 3.8 million viewers, though it still helped the NBC family with a combined 14.7 million viewers. James Hibberd talks more about this made-for-TV political phenomenon:

It may have been dull, but that didn't stop viewers from watching.

Tuesday night's presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama was seen by 63.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That's about 21% more than watched the candidates' first showdown two weeks ago -- an event seen by 52.4 million -- and ranks as the highest-rated top-of-the-ticket debate since 1992.

If one includes PBS viewership estimates, which are not part of the Nielsen sample, Tuesday's debate audience rises to 66 million.

Yet last night couldn't compare to Thursday's vp showdown between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, which was seen by 10% more viewers than last night (70 million) and retains the record as the second-most-watched debate of all time.

Tuesday's bout will stand as the highest-rated debate among Oval Office candidates since Bill Clinton, Ross Perot and George Bush squared off in 1992.

Video footage of the 2nd Clinton-Perot-Bush Debate of 1992 can be found at the online archives of the History of Televised Presidential Debates.