Tuesday, May 19, 2026

CBS Increased Ratings with Debate by 93% from Last Week, 83% Over Last Year: New Series with Brawling Candidates?

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CBS should consider having a presidential debate once a week.

Last night’s brawl among potential Democratic presidential candidates scored very nicely for them. CBS was up 93% from last week, and 83% over last year, same week.

It didn’t help that last week’s “NCIS” was one of the lower rated episodes of its run.

But the debate had an average 13 million viewers from 8 to 10 pm. Contrast that with “The Conners” over on ABC, which had just 5.1 million fans.

NBC competed strongly with the debate. “The Voice” had 8.5 million viewers, followed by “This is Us” with over 7 million.

Still, among the debates over all, the South Carolina crush came in a lot lower than last week’s gang bang in Las Vegas, which almost hit 20 million.

How about a series? CBS could spin it off of “NCIS”! But next time, let Murphy Brown be the moderator, please.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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