ABC’s This Week Scores with Democratic Candidates

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos recorded its first win in the key 25-54 demo since May 2006 last week (Aug. 19) thanks to the Democratic presidential candidates.

The Iowa Democratic debate, moderated by Stephanopoulos, averaged a 0.9 25-54 rating (1.08 million viewers) vs. a 0.8 for NBC's Meet the Press, a 0.6 for CBS' Face the Nation and a 0.4 for Fox News's Fox News Sunday.

This Week also tied with Meet the Press in households (David Gregory was subbing for Tim Russert on MTP) , marking its highest finish in that measure this millennium (since June 1999).

According to ABC, it was also the most-watched Democratic debate so far in total viewers with 2.87 million, topping second-place CNN's 2.783 million for its coverage of the New Hampshire Democratic debate June 3 (CNN's YouTube debate came in at No. 3 with 2.622 million viewers).

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.