The first 2016 Democratic presidential debate averaged 15.3 million total viewers, nearly doubling the previous high for a Democratic primary debate on cable news, CNN announced Wednesday.
The previous high for a Democratic presidential primary debate on cable was CNN’s Los Angeles debate in January 2008, which averaged 8.3 million viewers, the network said Wednesday. On broadcast, the high had been ABC’s debate in Philadelphia in April 2008, with 10.7 million viewers.
CNN, which hosted the debate in Las Vegas along with Facebook, also said live streaming to its website, mobile apps and Apple TV peaked at 980,000 concurrent live streams of the debate. That topped the peak of 921,000 for last month’s GOP presidential debate in California, also hosted by CNN.
An average of about 23 million people tuned in to watch that Republican debate last month, and about 24 million people watched the Aug. 6 GOP debate in Cleveland hosted by Fox News.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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