A night of feisty exchanges with former Vice President Joe Biden helped lift the ratings of the second round of CNN's Democratic primary debate on Wednesday.
The two-hour event from Fox Theatre in Detroit averaged an 8.7 rating on CNN and its sister channel CNN International, up 19% from Round 1 on Tuesday, according to Nielsen.
When the national audience number is released later Thursday, it should easily exceed the audience of 8.7 million viewers for Tuesday's debate.
While the final number is likely to be around 10 million viewers, slightly below CNN's expectations, the audience is still well above that of most primary debate events held in presidential cycles before the 2016 campaign.
Public interest in the 2020 presidential campaign and who will challenge President Trump remains high according to many surveys.
Biden, who has a commanding lead in the polls, was the main target of the nine other candidates on stage, who picked at his record on immigration, criminal justice reform and climate change. Sen. Kamala Harris of California came under attack as well for her record as the state's attorney general.
Their rivals on stage included Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.
