As excitement mounts over the weekend for the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, experts are predicting that a record number may watch the high-stakes showdown.
Apart from the unusual nature and growing significance of the election, unpredictability of Trump and vulnerabilities of both candidates on many issues, ubiquitous spread of information technology tools and availability of digital forums including social media will also be factors in multiplication of viewership.
Some experts believe the debate even has the potential to pull an unprecedented number of watchers among all kinds of events, more than even entertainment performances and sporting competitions.
New partnerships between the TV channels and new media may also add to the astronomical number of debate watchers.
For example ABC News and Facebook have partnered to live stream the 90-minute showdown between the two candidates espousing starkly different positions on domestic and foreign affairs.
NBC News anchor Lester Holt will host the debate from Hofstra University in New York which will be livecast by all major broadcast networks, and is expected to be watched by around 75 percent of American voters.
According to The Hill publication, the first two 20 debates between President Obama and Mitt Romney averaged 66.4 million viewers across broadcast and cable outlets including CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, C-SPAN, Univision and others.
“I think debate ratings, especially the first one, will be through the roof, astronomical, and may even approach Super
Bowl numbers of viewers,” Paul Levinson, a communications professor at Fordham University and author of the book “New New Media,” says according to The Hill.
