Wednesday’s Democratic primary debate in Detroit drew more than 10.7 million viewers — an uptick in ratings from the first night, but still a big drop from the number of people who tuned in to the party’s first debates in June.
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An additional 3.1 million people watched Wednesday’s CNN-hosted debate via livestream, the network announced Thursday. The broadcast delivered on highly anticipated clashes between the race’s frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
The previous evening’s debate drew 8.7 million television viewers, and 2.8 million people livestreamed the broadcast through CNN. The Tuesday night forum pitted progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts against lesser-known, more moderate White House aspirants. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who frequently ranks fifth in primary voters’ top choices for the nomination, also appeared on stage.
The first Democratic debates took place on June 26-27 in Miami and were hosted by NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo. The earlier of those two broadcasts earned 15.3 million viewers across the three networks. The second night raked in 18.1 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated Democratic debate in Nielsen ratings history.
The third Democratic primary debate is scheduled to take place at Texas Southern University in Houston on Sept. 12-13. Due to more stringent participation standards — candidates must both amass 130,000 individual donors and achieve 2 percent support in four qualifying polls — it will likely be the first debate of the 2020 cycle to feature fewer than 20 contenders. If much of the field doesn’t qualify, that event could be limited to a single night.