
Last night, 12 Democratic presidential candidates took the stage in Ohio for the fourth debate, hosted by CNN and the New York Times: Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker, Beto O'Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Juli n Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, and Tom Steyer.
First, a look at advertising insights from iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. In total, there were 81.4 million TV ad impressions over the three-hour debate.
Five brands accounted for nearly half of all spend over the course of the evening: Freedom from Religion Foundation, NumbersUSA, The Washington Post, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros.
Not counting CNN promos, Warner Bros. was the only brand to run two separate spots: one for Motherless Brooklyn and the other for The Good Liar. Freedom from Religion Foundation, NumbersUSA and The Washington Post each aired one ad twice. Here are the three most-seen ads from last night:
1. NumbersUSA TV Spot, E-Verify Works - 2 airings, 9.37 million impressions
2. Freedom from Religion Foundation TV Spot, Church and State Featuring Ron Reagan - 2 airings, 9.29 million impressions
3. Amazon Prime Video TV Spot, Tom Clancys Jack Ryan: Season One - 1 airing, 6.03 million impressions
We can also see viewership trends from Inscape, the TV data company with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 11 million smart TVs. Here's a look at where viewers were tuning in from across U.S. DMAs:
Via Inscape
In general, the East and West Coasts had slightly higher tune-in than middle America. Other hot spots included Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City-Dubuque, IA; Columbus, OH; Topeka, KS; Flint-Saginaw-Day City, MI; and West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, FL DMAs.
Inscape also tracked minute-by-minute viewership for the three-hour debate:
Via Inscape
Tune-in rose steadily in the first hour, plateaued a bit, then started a slow decline as the night wore on. There were two main peaks in viewership: First, around 9:25 p.m. ET, when candidates were discussing checking Trump and Russia/Putin, and election security/hacking threats. Then a little later viewership peaked around 9:57 p.m. ET, when Bernie Sanders discussed his health and candidates talked about whether age is an issue.
North America Stories
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13 with guest ...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
04/12/2025
Lightware, a global specialist in AV connectivity, is looking back on a year defined by new advancements, strong collaboration and continued growth. Across the ...
04/12/2025
Riedel Communications today announced a new partnership with Haivision, a leading global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual col...
04/12/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) and Normann Engineering today announced a major milestone in their strategic collaboration, celebrating 20 successful broadband deployme...
04/12/2025
Creative software developer Foundry today announced Mari 7.5, the latest iteration of its artist-friendly paint toolset that can handle large, detailed assets w...
04/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS), a leading provider of wireless audio solutions and RF management, was on site at Dreamforce 2025 in San Francisco providing...
04/12/2025
LTN's purpose-built IP video network brings all-movie diginet to over 100 stations and streaming platforms in just three months while eliminating satellite ...
04/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with ThinkAnalytics, the global leader in AI-powered data a...
04/12/2025
The HELM, a global expert in cinematic live broadcast and high-end production workflows, has signed a partnership agreement with Keslow Camera, one of North Ame...
04/12/2025
At ISE 2026, LiveU will showcase its expanded IP-video EcoSystem, enabling broadcasters, sports, production companies and pro-AV professionals to share their st...
04/12/2025
Since the beginning of commercial television, advertising has been a key part of broadcasting. Over the years, the technology for inserting ads into programs ha...
04/12/2025
MUNICH and MILAN Warner Bros. Discovery said HBO Max is expanding into Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein on Jan. 13, 2026, and ...
04/12/2025
SAN FRANCISCO AudioShake has launched its first streaming-capable software development kits (SDKs) designed specifically for real-time music detection and copyr...
04/12/2025
NASHVILLE The mobile and REMI production company TNDV has announced that it headed south into Mexico to live-produce the three-day 2025 Zane Grey Championship P...
04/12/2025
BURBANK, Calif. Hollywood Professionals Association Executive Director Phil Kubel has stepped down from the organization to pursue new opportunities, the group ...
04/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission said it has closed 2,048 inactive proceedings, the largest number of dormant dockets ever terminated in a singl...
04/12/2025
A new tech blog from Netflix highlights the importance of the AV1 open video codec, which now powers about 30% of the platform's streaming and discusses a v...
04/12/2025
Back to All News
Hugo Silva, Leonor Watling, Esther Acebo and Gorka Otxoa Star ...
04/12/2025
Back to All News
Step Inside the World of Troll 2: VFX Breakdown Featuring Dire...
04/12/2025
Developers, researchers, hobbyists and students can take a byte out of holiday s...
04/12/2025
Editor's note: The Game Pass edition of Hogwarts Legacy' will also be supported on GeForce NOW when the Steam and Epic Games Store versions launch on t...
04/12/2025
Scientists find cancer weak spot in backup DNA repair system New findings from Scripps Research reveal how certain tumors survive DNA damage and point to a stra...
03/12/2025
MLS Cup 2025 Production To Feature Four iPhone 17 Pros as Game-Coverage CamerasStay tuned to SVG on Friday for our in-depth story on this year's MLS Cup pro...
03/12/2025
SVG LIVE! 2025: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAYThe inaugural event placed a spotlight on the exciting world of live entertainmentBy SVG Staff
...
03/12/2025
(L-R) Peter Scriver and Seth Scriver introduce their documentary Endless Cookie for its premiere at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City. (Photo by Andrew H. Wa...
03/12/2025
COLUMBIA, Md. Lionsgate and its TV syndicator subsidiary Debmar-Mercury have selected LTN to launch and deliver the new MovieSphereGold all-movie digital networ...
03/12/2025
VIENNA, Austria Video streaming solutions provider Bitmovin and ThinkAnalytics, a provider of AI-powered data analytics for TV, have formed a strategic partners...
03/12/2025
SAN FRANCISCO & THE COLONY, Texas Dolby Laboratories is making what it is calling a new chapter in its retail efforts as part of an agreement with NFM (Nebras...
03/12/2025
MONTREAL Grass Valley has delivered a 4K Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) outside broadcast (OB) truck to Guangdong Radio and Television (GRT), in partnership with B...
03/12/2025
Our users spoke and we listened. December's Maxon One release delivers long-awaited improvements across Cinema 4D, Redshift, ZBrush, and Red Giant.
Whether...
03/12/2025
DHD audio reports a successful 2025 with new additions to its range of broadcast-quality audio production, post-production and routing equipment.
DHD innovatio...
03/12/2025
Grass Valley recently delivered a cutting-edge 4K Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) outside broadcast (OB) truck to Guangdong Radio and Television (GRT), in partnersh...
03/12/2025
CINCINNATI GatesAir has introduced Maxiva XTK, an update to its Maxiva XTE software-defined TV exciter. XTK is a new cost-efficient model primarily developed fo...
03/12/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications is partnering with Haivision, a global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual collaboratio...
03/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket for comments on the proposed $6.2 billion Nexstar acquisition for Tegna and set deadlines f...