Maddow: Dem Debate Was Least Watched, ‘Debate Schedule Buried in a Haystack’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

“The first Democratic presidential primary debate this year was the one that happened in Las Vegas. That was the one where Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee were still running around. Hi, guys. That debate with five Democrats on stage, that drew $15 million viewers. The second Democratic debate was last month. They held it on a Saturday night in Iowa at the exact same time that the undefeated Iowa Hawkeyes were taking on the Minnesota golden gophers in their blockbuster college football game. Did I mention that the game and the debate were both in Iowa, both starting at the same time on a Saturday night. That debate shaved about half of the audience off the first debate. That brought in about 8.5 million viewers. The third one was this past weekend. This Saturday before Christmas. It brought in even fewer viewers than the previous one. Nielsen numbers look like it’s roughly 7.85 million people who watched Saturday night. And of course the Republicans have been putting up blockbuster ratings for their zillions of primetime highly promoted debates, some of which have had over 20 million people watching them. Compare these ratings to 2012. But look at this. Remember, in 2012 President Obama was running for re-election. So there’s no Democratic party debates. Right? it’s just the Republicans holding their hilarious, riveting, bizarro 2012 primary with Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich and all the rest of them. I mean, in 2012 the Republican debates were the best show on television by a mile. And I say that as a person with a TV show on television. Everybody was watching the Republican debates in 2012. You could not turn away. But compare the numbers. More people watched the Democratic debate this past Saturday than watched any of the Republican debates in 2012. What? more people watched the Democratic debate this past Saturday than almost every other Democratic debate in 2008. Which was the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton blockbuster year. There were 15 debates that err ya on the Democratic 150id. The fourth highest debate that year was held on MSNBC. It drew 7.77 million viewers. This Saturday debate, this snoozer Saturday night before Christmas, beat that number. Did I mention that was Hillary versus Barack? So yeah. The Democrats have buried their debate schedule in a haystack, and it is impossible to find this year. Compared with the Republicans this year the numbers of people watching the Democratic debates are much smaller. But compared with previous years, even this year’s Democratic debate numbers are ignoramus. The Republican numbers are break the scale but the Democratic numbers are historically huge. Republicans are into this election. But what do the huge debate ratings mean for who’s likely to win the election? It’s hard to know. It is hard to tell at this point whether big debate audiences are going to help or hurt either party. I do have one metric, though, one last metric I want you to look at. Check this out. During the last Democratic debate this Saturday, this snooze fest in New Hampshire the Saturday before Christmas, the candidate who attracted the largest number of new Twitter followers over the course of that debate was Bernie Sanders. Bernie sanders went up more than anyone else on Twitter during the Democratic debate. The last Republican debate, the Republican debate last Tuesday in Las Vegas where 18 million people watched, during the last Republican debate you want to know who the candidate was who attracted the largest number of new Twitter followers during the Republican debate? Also Bernie Sanders. He had a great night that night too. On Republican debate night. There’s one clear metric that shows which candidate did their campaign the most good over the course of the last Republican debate and over the course of the last Democratic debate. And in both instances for whatever reason it was Bernie. Ratings schmatings. This race this year is just freaking weird. Weird and awesomely unpredictable. And I love my job.”