Palin vs. Biden a Super-Big Ratings Deal

Vice presidential debate watched by nearly 70 million people, blowing away the old record

Last night's vice presidential debate was no second banana.

The showdown between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden was watched by just under 70 million people, Nielsen Media Research said late today.

The audience blew away the old record for a vice-presidential debate—56.7 million for 1984's face-off between then-veep George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman on a major party's presidential ticket.

If the Palin-Biden contest were a presidential debate, it'd rank as the second most watched in TV history, tied with one of 1992's three-way showdowns between then-President George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot.

With a whopping 80.6 million viewers, the one-and-only 1980 meet-up between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan still stands as TV's most watched debate ever.

Compared to Palin and Biden, their respective running mates, John McCain and Barack Obama, look like Nielsen underachievers. Last week's McCain-Obama face-off, the first of three scheduled debates, was watched by 52.4 million.

That Palin-Biden was bigger than McCain-Obama is hardly surprising. Even more than the presidential race, the veep contest has a TV star—and with apologies to the U.S. senator from Delaware, it's not Biden.

Since her debut on the national scene just weeks ago, Palin has helped drive up ratings for network news shows and even Saturday Night Live, where the Tina Fey version of the Alaskan governor has that long-running NBC show up about 50 percent over last season.

Palin helped fuel interest in her debating skills by discussing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's head, and other topics with CBS' Katie Couric.

(Originally published Oct. 3, 2008 at 11:47 a.m. PT.)