The ninth debate of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary — and the first featuring former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg — delivered record viewership for a Democratic debate.
Nearly 20 million people watched the debate on NBC and MSNBC Wednesday night.
The 19.66 million viewers for the two-hour telecast breaks the previous Democratic primary record of 18.1 million by a sizable margin.
The previous mark was set in June 2019 for night two of the first Democratic debate, carried by NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.
The debate also averaged 417,000 streaming viewers, bringing the total average audience just above 20 million.
The broadcast also brought in 5.31 million viewers in the key news demographic of adults 25-54 — just ahead of the 5.3 million for the June debate — and 4.26 million in the 18-49 demo across the two networks.
The record audience for a primary debate for either major party remains 24 million viewers on Fox News for the first Republican debate of the 2016 cycle.
Bloomberg, a late entry into the field who has already spent millions on campaign ads, was a prime target for the other candidates in his first debate appearance.