What If You Threw A Debate And No One Watched?

Only a terrorist could like Tuesday night's AFL-CIO sponsored Dem Prez debate ... because it was a real bomb. Here's Media Bistro's TVNewser blog:

The AFL-CIO Democratic forum last night on MSNBC, was the lowest rated-yet of the eight primary debates/forums held this election season. Based on live +same day data, Nielsen found the debate had 960,000 total viewers and 340,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo.

Some commentators tried to put a good face on it. TVNewswer had to reach down into its comment bin to find something nice to say, and it did:

>An emailer adds: "August produces the lowest HUT (homes using television) levels of the year and the debate was held during fringe prime — at 7pm"

I'm not buying it.

TVNewser was kind enough to include a spreadsheet that shows that just a few days before Dreaded August, on July 27, the Dem's enjoyed their highest-rated of all the debates, reaching over 2.5 million households. Ouch.

Which debate was that? It was the innovative YouTube debate that broke new ground by letting anyone ask the question, and be seen doing it via YouTube. Tuesday's debate, on the other hand, was as old school as the July 27th debate was new school: tired old union hacks, tired old issues, tired old questions.

That nearly a million supposedly watched the union debate makes me wonder about Neilson; I'd have thought many, many fewer would have tuned in. And of course, Neilson never caught the millions who have seen clips of the YouTube debate ... on YouTube, not on Neilson's TV turf.

It's a new world, and the unions aren't a part of it. ... Or maybe it was just that they partnered with MSNBC.