Surprising Debate Audience Figures
By Denis Campbell • Sep 30th, 2008 • Category: Media
by Denis Campbell
Maybe we’re not as close-minded and polarised as the media would hope. This very informed electorate showed that every vote decision is being taken very seriously as, according to Nielsen, “only” 52.4 million US viewers in the USA tuned in to watch the first US Presidential Debate last Friday evening.
The pre-debate prediction was 80 million viewers so many were disappointed. Did they really just take Obama and McCain’s convention audiences of 40 million each and add them together? Are we, in their opinion, so polarised that only Democrats watch Obama and Republicans watch McCain?
The most interesting number?
The Metropolitan area with the fewest viewers was Phoenix, Arizona. Only 24.8% of television sets in use tuned in to the debate in the home state of Presidential candidate and US Senator John McCain.
Said one pundit quoting a voter asking why McCain’s figures were so low? “We’ve had to sit through his show for 20-years now and trust me it gets old really fast,” besides “Starship Atlantis” was on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Denis Campbell is a journalist, author and businessman.
From a farmhouse in South Wales overlooking the Irish Sea, he and his wife run Target Point Ltd, an EU-wide strategy firm working with global businesses across a dozen industries on clarifying and executing strategy and changing their culture and focus. As a businessman living in the EU for 10-years, writing was a passionate hobby. He began blogging in 2006 with a number of pieces examining the corrupt climate of deception in the billion dollar spiritual self-help industry and re-published collected business, political and lifestyle features published across the EU since 2001. It has since grown into The Vadimus Post, from the Latin Quo Vadimus – where are we headed? (…and do we know why?), a daily e-magazine for those wanting to dig deeper, learn more together and dialogue on the key issues of the day.
Thanks for visiting and feel free to let me know your thoughts and opinions.
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