CMCSA Comcast Corporation

By Joe Flint 

The Democratic presidential debate carried live on MSNBC Wednesday night drew 6.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen, which is the smallest audience so far in the race to determine who will take on President Trump in the 2020 election.

Sponsored by Comcast Corp.'s MSNBC and the Washington Post, the debate was the fifth among the Democratic contenders. It came after a long day of impeachment hearings that aired on cable news channels, which may have contributed to political fatigue for viewers.

MSNBC said its online broadcast of the debate notched more than 1.3 million live-streams.

The previous Democratic debate, which was carried by CNN and co-sponsored by the New York Times, averaged 8.5 million viewers.

The next Democratic debate is scheduled for Dec. 19 and will be carried by PBS and CNN.

Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 21, 2019 19:25 ET (00:25 GMT)

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