On Monday night, Belmont University and WSMV-TV co-hosted The 2010 Statewide Debate, a live broadcast across Tennessee with gubernatorial candidates Mike McWherter, Ron Ramsey, Zach Wamp and Bill Haslam participating. The debate was a ratings and community service success, and landed as the No. 1 program in its time period and the most watched program in prime time that night. The measure of the audience comes from The Nielsen Company and is based on Nielsen Household overnights for Monday, July 12, 2010.
In Nashville, the debate achieved a 9.47 rating and a 14 share. This means that 9.47 percent of all TVs in middle Tennessee, whether turned on or not, watched the debate. Of those homes watching television from 7-8 p.m., 14 percent were watching the Belmont/Channel 4 debate. Those numbers break down to well over 112,000 homes and about a quarter of a million people watching. In both Memphis and Knoxville, the debate was the number two program in the time period and the number two program in all of prime time Monday night.
In addition, Belmont University partnered with East Tennessee State University and the University of Memphis to enable debate watch parties on those campuses. Political science students from each of the universities gathered to view and discuss the debate. Click here to view more photos from Monday night’s event.
