The fourth Democratic presidential primary debate drew an average audience of 8.3 million viewers for CNN on Tuesday, the smallest TV audience for the 2020 White House contenders so far.
The fourth Democratic presidential primary debate drew an average audience of 8.3 million viewers for CNN on Tuesday, the smallest TV audience for the 2020 White House contenders so far.
The figure from Nielsen is a well below the 8.7 million who watched the first round of CNN’s July 30 debate. The decline is likely due to stronger competition in prime time, including a National League Championship Series game on TBS, where the Washington Nationals earned their first trip to the World Series in franchise history.
The audience level was down 22% from the 10.7 million who watched the second round of the second Democratic primary debate on CNN . The largest audience for a Democratic debate so far in the 2020 campaign cycle is 18.1 million viewers watched the second round of the first Democratic debate simulcast across NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo on June 27.
Nevertheless, CNN’s audience for the Democratic candidates competing to face President Donald Trump in the 2020 election remains higher than most debates in pre-2016 campaign seasons at such an early stage.
In the years before Trump turbo-charged the ratings during the 2016 race, the largest audience for a primary debate before the Iowa caucuses were held was the 9.3 million in who watched Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama face off in Jan. 2008.
The three-hour event held at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio was the first since Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has emerged as a front runner in numerous polls. She spent much of the night parrying questions on how her administration would fund her proposals of Medicare for all and free tuition at public colleges.
