Over 11 Million Turn to NBC for Coverage of First Presidential Debate

11.069 million total viewers turned to NBC News for coverage of the first 2012 presidential debate. Nearly half of that audience, 5.156 million viewers, were adults aged 25-54 -- making NBC News the most-watched broadcast or cable network among the key A25-54 demographic.

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE (9:00-10:33pm ET)

NBC News’ coverage of the first Presidential Debate averaged 11.069 million total viewers, +5% (+493,000) more than CBS (10.576 million) and +61% (+4,184,000) ahead of FOX (6.885 million).
In A18-49, NBC averaged a 3.8 rating, beating ABC by +12% (+4 tenths), CBS by +23% (+7 tenths) and FOX by +31% (+9 tenths).
In A25-54, NBC averaged a 4.3 rating, +10% (+4 tenths) ahead of ABC, +13% (+5 tenths) ahead of CBS and +43% (+1.3 rating points) more than FOX.

POST-DEBATE ANALYSIS (10:33-11:00pm ET)
NBC’s post-analysis coverage (10:33p-11p) averaged 8.719 million total viewers, +24% (+1,709,000) ahead of CBS’ 7.010 million.
In A18-49, NBC averaged a 2.8 rating, +12% (+3 tenths) more than ABC and +33% (+7 tenths) more than CBS.
In A25-54, NBC delivered a 3.3 rating, +10% (+3 tenths) ahead of ABC and +32% (+8 tenths) ahead of CBS. Note ABC’s coverage began at 10:32p.
Versus the rated analysis on the first night of the 2008 Presidential debate (Fri 9/26/08), NBC was up +22% (+1,594,000) in total viewers, +22% (+5 tenths) in rating A18-49 and +18% (+5 tenths) in rating A25-54.

ONLINE
NBCPolitics.com saw over 3,180,000 page views and 992,000 video streams, including nearly 250,000 live streams of the debate.
The #nbcpolitics hashtag on Twitter was used over 25,000 times according to Topsy, and trended nationally during the debate.

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