Ratings: Democratic Debate Round 3 Dominates, Big Brother Steady

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ABC’s three-hour coverage of the third Democratic presidential debate on Thursday night averaged 12.9 million total viewers (per finals), up sharply from NBC’s numbers for Round 1 (which averaged 9.2 million viewers across two nights in June).

Yet that June debate audience, with viewership on NBC sister outlets MSNBC and Telemundo folded in, went on to total 15.3 million. This Thursday’s debate was simulcast on Univision, which brought total viewership to about 14 million.

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In TVLine’s always super-scientific straw poll, 24 percent said that Elizabeth Warren emerged as having the best chance to defeat Trump in 2020, followed by Joe Biden (16 percent) and Bernie Sanders (13 percent).

Elsewhere on Thursday:

CBS | Big Brother (4.6 mil/1.1) added a few eyeballs while steady in the demo week-to-week.

FOX | MLB coverage delivered 2 mil and a 0.5.

THE CW | The Outpost (725K/0.2) ticked up, while Two Sentence Horror Stories (593K/0.1) was steady.

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