Democratic presidential hopefuls (from left) Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley take part in the second Democratic presidential primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa. (AFP)
The second Democratic presidential debate drew 8.55 million viewers, host network CBS said Sunday, about half as many as the party's debut debate in the campaign cycle last month.
Saturday's primetime debate in Des Moines, Iowa came a day after the terror attacks on Paris and saw a heavy focus on what frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley would do about the Islamic State extremist group.
But despite that, the number who tuned in was sharply down on the nearly 16 million people who watched the first Democratic debate of the 2016 presidential campaign on October 13 on CNN.
However, citing the TV ratings firm Nielsen, CBS said the latest debate was Saturday's number one primetime broadcast in viewer numbers.
While October 13 represented record viewership for a Democratic primary debate, it was a far cry from the 24 million people who tuned in to Fox News on August 6 for the first Republican clash of the cycle, featuring the party's frontrunner Donald Trump and nine challengers.
However, subsequent Republican debates have also seen a downturn in interest -- about 13 million tuned in to see Trump et al. slug it out on November 10.
According to entertainment industry expert Variety, the latest debate was the lowest-rated of the six debates so far, but pointed out that it was the first to be held on a Saturday, when viewing levels are typically at their lowest.