The initial showing among ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox climbs 23 percent from 2012.
Monday night's debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was preordained to be one of the biggest TV events of 2016, and initial ratings have it on track to be a record setter — or at least very close to one.
Early numbers have the 90-minute showdown, simulcast on more than 10 networks and umpteen streamers, easily topping all recent debate coverage. With Nielsen's Fast Affiliate ratings now in for the night, the Big Four broadcast networks' coverage pulled a total 45.3 million viewers ahead of time zone adjustments. That's a 22 percent increase from the same numbers in 2012.
Among the individual networks, NBC currently leads with 16.6 million of those viewers, followed by ABC (12.5 million), CBS (11 million) and Fox (5.3 million).
Pre-adjusted viewership stats for the broadcast networks' coverage of the first debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney saw the Big Four pull a cumulative 37.2 million viewers during 90 minutes of coverage in 2012. That sum, which did not reflect time zone adjustments, was not far off from the final broadcast tally. The first presidential debate of 2012, which grossed 67.2 million viewers across a multitude of networks, ultimately drew 39.8 million of that tally from the Big Four.
Overnight ratings among Nielsen's metered markets have the Big Four networks pulling a total 31.2 rating among households. (The 2016 Super Bowl, which is the only real comparison for the year, pulled an early 49 rating for CBS and ultimately brought in more than 100 million viewers.) As overnight ratings go, that's also more than double last week's Sunday Night Football score. It nabbed a 13.7 rating, which ultimately translated to 22.8 million viewers. Ahead of tallies from the main trio of cable news networks and the multitude of broadcasters carrying the commercial-free stream, this puts the debate on track to smash that 2012 total and very likely approach an all-time high.
But boosts across broadcast mean likely boosts for cable news as well. Those numbers will arrive later in the afternoon.
