44.8 Million Households Tuned into Third Presidential Debate

Rentrak Corporation, the leader in multi-screen media measurement serving the advertising, television and entertainment industries, today announced ratings information from Monday night's presidential debate, the third and final meeting between President Obama and GOP candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

The format for Monday's debate, which took place in the battleground state of Florida, was divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each to discuss topics that were selected by the moderator, CBS correspondent, Bob Schieffer.

The total viewing audience for the third debate was 44.8 million households which fell from 48.0 million viewing households during the second debate. There were 49.1 million households who tuned in to watch first debate earlier this month.

In terms of the traditional average audience rating, the third debate garnered a 26.5 versus 31.2 for the first debate and 31.7 during the second debate. The average time spent viewing the debate also fell, down to 67.7% of minutes compared to 75.7% of minutes during the second debate, which was up from 73.0% of the first debate. The audience just didn't stay tuned in as long with this last debate.

Bruce Goerlich, Chief Research Officer at Rentrak said, "Debate viewership dropped across all the debates, with the holding power dropping considerably in the third debate."

In a report of selected markets chosen by Rentrak, the information showed that 11 of the 26 selected markets held steady or increased viewership between the second and third debates with West Palm Beach, Florida showing the biggest jump in viewership.