15.3 Million Watched Last Night’s CBS News Democratic Debate

The last Democratic debate before the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday drew hefty ratings: It was watched by a little more than 15 million viewers.

15.3 million people watched the debate on CBS while another half a million people watched on BET, according to preliminary Nielsen data reported by CNN.

For some perspective, the first Democratic debate of this election cycle — hosted by NBC — was watched by 18.1 million people, and the NBC debate last week became the most watched with roughly 20 million viewers. The debates in between, however, saw smaller audiences.

Last night’s debate was far more lively (to put it mildly), with a number of candidates going after frontrunner Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren getting into it multiple times with Michael Bloomberg, and Joe Biden got testy with the moderators more than once.

The next Democratic debate — hosted by CNN and Univision — will be taking place next month in Arizona.

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