Democratic presidential debate sees its best-ever viewership with 19.7 million

Variety

The inclusion of Mike Bloomberg on the debate stage for the first time led to record viewership for Democratic debates. Wednesday's Las Vegas ninth Democratic debate, airing on MSNBC and NBC News and highlighted by Elizabeth Warren's takedown of Bloomberg, easily beat the previous record: a 2016 primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. However, none of the nine debates have come close the Republican primary debate record of 24 million for the first 2016 primary debate, marking Donald Trump's debut as a presidential candidate, in August 2015. The next Democratic debate will be held in five days on CBS in South Carolina.