ABC Claims Ratings Victory for Debate

ABC says its presidential debate coverage was number one in the ratings.

The network reported the following in a news release today:

On its first night of debate coverage, ABC News' "Your Voice, Your Vote - 2012 Presidential Debate" drew an average audience of 11.3 million viewers, qualifying as Wednesday's #1 program among Total Viewers. Airing from 9:00-10:32 p.m., ABC News delivered the most-watched coverage of the debate, outdrawing CBS by 7% (10.6 million) and NBC by 2% (11.1 million).

* ABC's debate coverage was up over the network's coverage of the first Presidential debate four years ago by 2% in Total Viewers (11.0 million on 9/26/08).

"Vote 2012: Analysis-Wed-10/3" (10:32-11:00 p.m.)
ABC News' analysis of the 2012 Presidential Debate on Wednesday night ranked as the #1 post-debate analysis in Total Viewers (8.9 million), topping NBC's coverage by 2% (8.7 million) and CBS' coverage by 27% (7.0 million).

* ABC's analysis of the 2012 Presidential debate grew by 7% in Total Viewers from the Net's analysis on the comparable night four years ago (8.3 million on 9/26/08).

* The ABC News debate analysis delivered the Network's best performance in the half-hour in nearly 1 year in Total Viewers - since 11/9/11.

Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos anchored ABC's special coverage of the first Presidential debate in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, October 3. To give viewers the whole picture on how each candidate performed and what impact it could have on the campaign going forward, Sawyer and Stephanopoulos were joined by members of ABC's powerhouse political team including - Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper, "ABC World News" Weekend Anchor David Muir, Senior Political Correspondent Jonathan Karl - who reported from ABC's Fact or Fiction Desk -- as well as ABC News Political Contributors George Will, Matthew Dowd, Nicolle Wallace, Donna Brazile and Austan Goolsbee.

Marc Burstein is the senior executive producer of ABC News Special Events.

FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RATINGS (October 3 – 9:00-10:32pm)


Total Viewers
Adults 25-54ABC
  11,252,000
  3.92; 4,651,000
NBC
  11,069,000
  4.34; 5,156,000
CBS
  10,576,000
  3.80; 4,507,000
ANALYSIS OF FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RATINGS (10:32-11:00pm)


Total Viewers
Adults 25-54
ABC
  8,865,000
  2.97; 3,527,000
NBC
  8,719,000
  3.29; 3,899,000
CBS
  7,010,000
  2.48; 2,945,000