Having to preempt their lineups for four debates and election night during a presidential election season can cause havoc for broadcast networks but it's encouraging to see that 67 million people tuned in for the first debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. All the broadcast networks had strong numbers followed by Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. All told, it was the best first debate audience since the 1980 debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. The networks can't advertise during the debates, which are commercial free but it's healthy that the country is so tuned into current events. It also doesn't hurt that twitter, facebook, and other online venues encourage real time reactions which made this a nationwide event on Wednesday night. The next one is coming up Thursday, will the civic minded viewing habits continue?
BAD WEEK: THE NEW COMEDIES
Unlike last fall which was quickly dubbed "year of the comedy" - this year has seen very little interest in the new comedy offerings and this week was particularly brutal to new comedies. On CBS, Partners fell more in week two after a very poor debut. On ABC, The Neighbors took a brutal drop in its move to 8:30pm. On NBC, Go On and The New Normal saw series lows the day they received full season orders while Animal Practice also continued to explore new lows. On FOX, Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project took heavy week two drops and are both below a 2.0 demo already. Only NBC's Guys with Kids was even with last week and that was at a low 1.6 demo. After last year saw 2 Broke Girls, Suburgatory, and New Girl break out, the reaction to this year's new comedies has been real lukewarm since upfronts and audiences are responding accordingly.
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