Debate rate: Nielsen weighs in

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The Mississippi battle of words between John McCain and Barack Obama pulled a 33.2 share nationwide in local television markets where Nielsen maintains electronic TV meters (Houston was out of the mix thanks to Hurricane Ike). The hottest market was St. Louis; the sleepiest was Phoenix.


Presidential Debate TV Sum of RTGs, SHRs and Projections across all stations broadcasting the Presidential Debate for the night of September 26, 2008 within a MM or LPM market.
 
Stations:  
ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, CNN, Telemundo, TeleFutura, BBCA.  
       
DMA Rank Market RTG Rank RTG SHR (000)  
21
St. Louis 1 52.1 82.0 649  
48
Memphis 2 49.5 67.0 330  
26
Baltimore 3 47.1 66.0 515  
9
Washington, DC (Hagrstwn) 4 44.6 68.0 1030  
29
Nashville 5 44.0 66.0 424  
46
Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem 6 42.2 61.0 285  
32
Columbus, OH 7 41.5 63.0 377  
43
Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws 8 41.4 59.0 298  
58
Richmond-Petersburg 9 40.3 55.0 211  
18
Denver 10 39.7 65.0 586  
24
Charlotte 11 39.3 54.0 426  
7
Boston (Manchester) 12 39.3 58.0 944  
22
Portland, OR 13 39.0 74.0 450  
31
Kansas City 14 37.7 61.0 350  
16
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale 15 37.2 52.0 573  
38
West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce 16 36.4 55.0 282  
27
Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle) 17 36.2 54.0 377  
51
Buffalo 18 36.1 54.0 230  
25
Indianapolis 19 35.3 59.0 379  
53
New Orleans 20 34.8 48 209  
11
Detroit 21 34.3 55.0 661  
59
Knoxville 22 34.3 51.0 185  
61
Tulsa 23 34.1 55.0 178  
45
Oklahoma City 24 34.0 55.0 231  
40
Birmingham (Ann and Tusc) 25 33.5 48.0 245  
52
Providence-New Bedford 26 33.5 50.0 211  
15
Minneapolis-St. Paul 27 33.4 59.0 569  
19
Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn 28 33.4 52.0 479  
62
Ft. Myers-Naples 29 33.3 51.0 164  
28
San Diego 30 33.0 59.0 349  
50
Louisville 31 33.0 48.0 218  
17
Cleveland-Akron (Canton) 32 32.9 55.0 505  
37
San Antonio 33 32.9 48.0 261  
20
Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto 34 32.7 55.0 454  
4
Philadelphia 35 32.1 51.0 941  
44
Albuquerque-Santa Fe 36 32.1 50.0 218  
23
Pittsburgh 37 32.1 51.0 371  
6
San Francisco-Oak-San Jose 38 32.0 62.0 779  
13
Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota) 39 31.7 49.0 569  
49
Austin 40 31.6 52.0 201  
36
Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And 41 31.5 46.0 265  
64
Dayton 42 31.4 50.0 161  
1
New York 43 31.3 48.0 2317  
8
Atlanta 44 30.9 52.0 714  
3
Chicago 45 30.7 51.0 1067  
14
Seattle-Tacoma 46 30.3 58.0 541  
30
Hartford & New Haven 47 30.2 45.0 306  
47
Jacksonville 48 30.0 47.0 196  
33
Salt Lake City 49 29.9 63.0 261  
35
Milwaukee 50 29.2 49.0 262  
34
Cincinnati 51 28.3 49.0 256  
42
Las Vegas 52 27.9 46.0 196  
5
Dallas-Ft. Worth 53 27.7 46.0 671  
2
Los Angeles 54 26.4 50.0 1484  
12
Phoenix (Prescott) 55 24.8 47.0 448  
10
Houston* 56 0.0 0.0 0  
  Weighted Avg. of 55 markets*   33.2  
     
* Houston was below intab requirements and won’t have data until 9/29/2008.