UNFINISHED BUSINESS: The Projects James Gandolfini Left … 
R.I.P. James Gandolfini 
Photos: James Gandolfini, 1961-2013 
Masterpiece To Co-Produce ITV Medical Drama … 
Warner Bros Sets Morten Tyldum To Helm … 
Zac Efron Thriller ‘The Falling’ Gets Jeremy … 
Why Was Ex-Soft Porn Filmmaker Recently Hired As Movie … 
ReelzChannel Cancels ‘The Big Picture’ After … 
Cillian Murphy Boards ‘In The Heart Of The Sea’ 
John Legend To Produce Comedy Project About Music Managers … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Crystal Fairy’ 
Sam Taylor-Johnson To Direct ‘Fifty Shades Of … 
Inside AMPAS Board Of Governors’ Meeting: Conflict Of … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Spectacular Now’ 
Glenn Geller To Run Current Programming For CBS & CBS … 
Shailene Woodley’s Mary Jane Role Cut From ‘The … 
New ‘Star Wars’ Film Cast Breakdown Unveiled 
CAA Signs Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, Oscar-Winning … 
UPDATE: Dan Abrams Named New ‘Nightline’ Anchor … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘The Voice’ Finale On Par … 
Joy Bryant Returns To Longtime Agent Steve Alexander At … 
UPDATE, 2:46 PM: The Vice Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan last night pulled in 51.4 million viewers — 18 million less than the record-breaking face-off between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden in 2008, which drew 69.9 million viewers. Fox News won Thursday’s debate among all outlets with an audience of just more than 10 million. CBS was the most-watched broadcast network with 8.31 million viewers, just above ABC’s 8.29 million. NBC was third with 7.85 million. Overall, the viewership is down considerably from the numbers all three received in 2008 for Palin-Biden, when ABC drew 13.1 million viewers, NBC 12.8 million and CBS 11.1 million. Last night’s debate also drew 15 million viewers less than the first Presidential debate October 4 between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Related: The VP Debate: What Did You Think?
ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, CNBC, CNN, Current TV, Fox News and MSNBC ran the Biden-Ryan debate live from 9-10:30 PM ET; Telemundo and Univision broadcast it on tape delay. The debate was the third-most watched VP debate ever, following Palin-Biden and the 1984 debate between incumbent George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferarro, which drew 56.7 million viewers.
PREVIOUSLY: 11:19 AM: Fox News Channel dominated cable news networks’ coverage of the Vice Presidential debate last night between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. Fox News had just more than 10 million viewers during the 9-10:30 PM ET debate, more than MSNBC and CNN put together. That total is just slightly down from the 10.42 million who watched the first Presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on Fox News on October 4, when the network also won big over its rivals. Last night’s debate was down about 1 million viewers from Fox News’ coverage of Biden’s last VP debate in 2008 against Gov. Sarah Palin; those 11.1 million total viewers marked the largest viewership number in the network’s 12-year history up to that point. Here are last night’s numbers:
Related: The VP Debate: What Did You Think?
Fox News: 10,019,827 in total viewers (3,057,099 in 25-54)
MSNBC: 4,378,671 in total viewers (1,619,542 in 25-54)
CNN: 4,145,951 in total viewers (1,523,882 in 25-54)
Although reliable numbers won’t be in until later, fast nationals this morning had last night’s debate tracking down in the double digits from the Biden-Palin debate. We will update with those numbers later.
Related: RATINGS RAT RACE: Solid Start For ‘The Vampire Diaries’ And ‘Beauty & The Beast’
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
Loading ...
Gotta love that Pres Obama wants to get people back to work and all Romeny could talk about was how he wanted to fire the debate Moderator and Big Bird. As he said he really does “like being able to fire people” and apparently, large feathered birds. Doesn’t he realize people actually work at PBS that would lost jobs if he cut funding?
And then Obama spent literally a week on the stump talking about Sesame Street, and put out an ad about it that the CTS demanded they pull.
Who’s losing focus?
He mentioned Big Bird in a passing two-second remark that was a very small part of a big point, which is that he’s unwilling to borrow money from CHINA for things that not crucial to our nation. I love Big Bird, but he’s not crucial. And since only 15% of funding for PBS is from the federal government, losing such funds wouldn’t automatically mean that there would be lost jobs–it just means they would need to find funds elsewhere, or executives who are making $350,000+ would have to take a slight paycut. Also, what’s your proof that Obama wants to get people back to work? Because I have seen no actions taken on his part to support your claim.
Unemployment rate down to 7.8%.
Biden looked and acted nutz, hard to believe he’s a heartbeat and no brain cells away from being the Prez.
and Ryan had zero specifics.
“Gotta love that Pres Obama wants to get people back to work and all Romeny could talk about was how he wanted to fire the debate Moderator and Big Bird”
That’s all he could talk about? The exchange literally lasted seconds. What exactly are you talking about?
People tuned into Palin/Biden to see what stupid thing Palin would say next. Every time she opens her mouth it’s like watching a car wreck.
Last night’s debate didn’t have that appeal and combine that with competition from an NFL game and you can see why numbers were down.
EXACTLY. !!!!
VP debates don’t matter other than entertainment fodder.
-RnsW
Watching Joe Biden spank Paul Ryan’s butt was amazing,and I actually felt bad for him at times because he was speechless to defend Joe’s attacks and really got brutalized by Biden hammering him over the head with fact after fact after fact, particularly the 47% spill, but yeah, not nearly as entertaining as the dumbness that was Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin had me rolling on the floor laughing and thanking God for McCain picking her as his VP. Hats off to the moderator as well. She didn’t let Ryan bully her into making the debate his own political stump speech and she called him out on all his nonanswers.
You saw the debate that you wanted to see rather than the debate that actually happened. Biden didn’t spank anyone and if he inflicted any harm at all, it was on himself with his buffoonery. Ryan was rattled nor speechless — when it was his turn, he spoke earnestly and somewhat eloquently. He wasn’t jumping in to interrupt Biden because Biden already lacks credibility and respect (even among White House staff) and he wasn’t scoring many points with his bluster. The good thing to say about Biden’s performance is that it wasn’t bad for him, although many people should be thinking about how much he dismissed the Iranian threat. I was surprised by that.