Democratic debate draws 18.1 million viewers across three networks

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Fox & Trends with Carley Shimkus.

NBC’s Democratic presidential debate attracted 18.1 million viewers Thursday night.

The second edition of the two-night event attracted 10.6 million viewers on NBC, 6.7 million on MSNBC and 840,000 on Telemundo for a total that surpassed industry expectations and ended up as the most-watched Democratic debate ever.

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Among the key demo of adults age 25-54, the debate attracted 5.3 million viewers, with 3.3 million tuning into NBC, 1.7 million watching on MSNBC and 344,000 on Telemundo.

Wednesday’s opening night was inundated with technical and audio issues and Thursday featured even more embarrassing moments for the Peacock Network. The gaffes started with another audio glitch when candidates took the stage to stone silence during the pre-debate show on MSNBC, confusing Brian Williams in the process.

“Do we have any audio from the room or is this happening in absolute silence?” Williams asked the control room on live TV.

At one point, moderator Rachel Maddow attempted to toss it to Lester Holt in the audience — but the “Nightly News” anchor wasn’t in position, leading to uncomfortable silence before the far-left pundit laughed off the mistake as a “fake out.”

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The debate was panned by critics as frenzied and unorganized, with much of the blame being placed at the feet of moderator Chuck Todd, but viewers tuned in nonetheless. The second night outdrew Wednesday’s opener, which averaged 15.3 million viewers across MSNBC, NBC and Telemundo.

Meanwhile, NBC was also accused of playing favorites, as presidential candidate Andrew Yang said his microphone was "not on" when he wanted to speak at various points of debate. It was unclear if this was another technical issue.

NBC News did not immediately respond to Fox News for comment.

The sister of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, even accused the liberal network of favoring Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, who received a whopping five questions within the first 30 minutes of Wednesday night's debate.