43.6 Million Tune In to Debate
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NEW YORK — Tuesday night’s debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) drew about 43.6 million television viewers, despite competition from baseball playoffs airing on the Fox network. That number far exceeds those for the 2000 debate between vice presidential candidates.
Nielsen Media Research said the audience grew 50% compared with the 29.1 million who watched the debate between Cheney and Sen. Joe Lieberman in 2000.
NBC led the way Tuesday in average total viewers (11.5 million), followed by ABC (10.3 million), CBS (9.2 million), Fox News Channel (7.8 million), CNN (3.3 million) and MSNBC (1.5 million).
PBS, not included in the Nielson count, said about 3.3 million people watched on its stations.
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