Nevada Debate More Than Doubles New Hampshire, Iowa Ratings: 'Bloomberg Effect' Cited

by Joe Mandese , February 20, 2020

The Democratic debate in Nevada Wednesday night was tuned to by 10.2 million U.S. TV households, an increase of 126% from the last Democratic debate Feb. 7 in New Hampshire, and a 152% increase from the Democratic debate Jan. 14 in Iowa, according to overnight data released this morning by Samba TV.

Samba said the estimates are derived from its database of smart TV and digital set-top box data representing 3.4 million U.S. TV households.

Wednesday night’s debate was televised by NBC and MSNBC and it was the highest-rated 2020 Democratic debate to date.

The Feb. 7 debate aired on ABC.

The Jan. 14 debate was carried by CNN.

Samba TV Director of Data Science & Analytics Jeffrey Silverman attributed the boost to “the Bloomberg effect,” referring to Michael Bloomberg’s first appearance on the debate stage since mounting a massive advertising and social media campaign and surging in the national polls.

“Wednesday night’s debate experienced a massive increase in viewership over the previous debate with more than twice as many households watching the NBC News sponsored contest than the previous NH debate,” he stated, adding, “This was likely the largest debate audience of the election and by far the largest audience in 2020. Voters in Bloomberg’s home state of New York tuned-in in large numbers to hear from their former mayor with the state’s viewership over-indexing the national average by 28%.”

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4 comments about "Nevada Debate More Than Doubles New Hampshire, Iowa Ratings: 'Bloomberg Effect' Cited".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, February 20, 2020 at 8:51 a.m.
Too bad for Bloomberg that he didn't seem properly prepared for the jarring personal attacks that were directed against him.
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Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., February 20, 2020 at 9:45 a.m.

@Ed Papazian: I wouldn't count him out, yet.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, February 20, 2020 at 12:20 p.m.

Joe, I'm not counting B out but I'm amazed that he doesn't seem to have prepared for a highly combative---and nasty---assault by Bernie and Liz---or, if he did prepare---using standard role playing, focus group, methods---he may simply have frozen on the "debate" platform. Imagine what will happen if he gets the Dem's nomination and is facing T in the really decisive debates with all of the childish name calling and posturing that will ensue. Will he freeze ---again?

Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, February 20, 2020 at 2:30 p.m.

I agree with Ed. How much did Mayor Mike pay those debate consultants he hired? He could have simply said, "I'd be happy to release my non-disclosure agreements when everyone in Congress agrees to release theirs." Instead, he made some weak defense about "Maybe they didn't like a joke I told." I can only imagine the joke, "So, these three horse-faced women walk into a bar."