While the winner of the first televised debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush is a matter of dispute, a clear loser was NBC, which decided to stick with baseball instead. Ratings for NBC’s broadcast of the American League baseball playoff game between the New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics were low enough to soothe the concerns of those who fear commercialism will crowd out civic duty when it comes to televising debates.
NBC received so much criticism that it decided to send both signals to its stations and let them take the heat locally for whatever decision they made. Most decided to carry the game. Their reward was a mere 4.8 million viewers in the Nielsen ratings, which was less than the 17 million viewers drawn by Fox’s “Dark Angel” debut and the 6.2 million attracted by the WB network’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
More viewers (6.3 million) saw the debate over NBC’s affiliates, either live or by delayed broadcast, than watched its baseball game.
All told, the debate drew a commanding 46.6 million viewers, a blockbuster in TV terms. That was also about a half-million more than the first debate between President Clinton and Republican Bob Dole drew in 1996. If the electorate is infected with apathy in this campaign season, you couldn’t tell it by the ratings for this first presidential debate.
That should allay the fears and outrage of those who complained that NBC was somehow shirking its civic duty and betraying the public trust by sticking with its contract to broadcast the playoffs.
Some were ready to threaten NBC’s license for failing to uphold the 40-year tradition of live coverage on the three biggest networks. That’s nonsense. No citizen is going to be compelled to perform the civic duty of watching a presidential debate by reducing the number of alternatives to watching it.
The ratings reveal a much better incentive to perform a public service: Public demand for it.
No TV viewer was denied access to the debate, as long as his or her set was working. President Carter and his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan once drew the all-time audience record of 80.6 million in 1980. Ratings in those days were larger partly because the viewers had fewer alternatives.
Viewers are better off with more choices, which is what just the video marketplace has brought.
This year’s first debate was available to viewers over more broadcast and cable channels, including the Fox and NBC cable news channels, than were available 20 years ago, when the era of broadcast deregulation began. The result of fewer government rules has been more choices, including more choices of news and public affairs programs. That’s nothing but healthy.
