Spotlight wanes: Viewership for presidential debates drops sharply
After debate viewership half that of 2022, candidates clash in final round Tuesday over politics, foreign affairs
The early presidential election is now less than a week away, with the promise of reshaping the course of domestic politics in the aftermath of the martial law crisis that erupted in December. But the televised debates between the candidates have seen sluggish viewership, as policy proposals and fiery exchanges of words apparently fail to capture the kind of public attention they used to.
Recent data suggests fewer South Koreans sitting through the televised four-way debates of presidential candidates that aired live for two hours. None of the two previous live debates' aggregated viewership shares of all TV networks exceeded 20 percent, according to estimates from Nielsen Korea, an outlier across the decades of South Korea's democratic history.
In the first debate for the June presidential election held on May 18 -- simulcast by six South Korean TV networks, including three major terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS -- the viewership rating came to a combined 19.6 percent. That figure was roughly half, according to Nielsen Korea, of the first televised debate in 2022's 39 percent, which was only aired by KBS, MBC and SBS.
Viewership ratings for the second debate on Friday slipped further from May 18. The aggregated viewership ratings for Friday's debate -- broadcast via seven networks including the three terrestrials -- reached 18.4 percent. That was slightly lower than the second 2022 presidential debate's total of 21.37 percent on Feb. 11, 2022, when KBS, MBC and SBS chose to broadcast a short-track speedskating competition for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing instead of the presidential debate.
Both live debates this month involved candidates meeting a certain set of criteria suggested by the election authorities -- namely, Rep. Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party, Rep. Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party and Kwon Young-gook of the Democratic Labor Party.
Before this year, presidential debates over the past decade has mostly surpassed 30 percent in viewership.
Of all five televised debates in 2022 between four candidates -- including then-conservative candidate Yoon Suk Yeol, who won the election but was ousted in April, as well as Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party -- four had combined viewership shares of over 33 percent, with the exception due to the Winter Games.
The same was true for the 2017 election, which followed former President Park Geun-hye's removal due to a broad corruption scandal. Among all four live televised debates of five eligible candidates, three showed viewership ratings of 30 percent or higher.
For this year's presidential election, only three televised debates -- mandatory ones hosted by the election authorities -- were scheduled.
Back in 1997, a whopping 55.7 percent viewership rating was recorded before Kim Dae-jung was elected president.
Now, voters' interest in televised debates appear to be waning, one expert noted. For this year's debate specifically, this phenomenon is attributable to a political crisis due to former President Yoon's self-coup attempt in December, which only deepened the already stark ideological polarization.
"If there are people who already support a specific candidate, they would find it unnecessary to watch the debate," Eom Ki-hong, professor of political science at Kyungpook National University, told The Korea Herald, adding that supporters "would have already made up their minds" before watching a debate.
Eom also pointed out the martial law crisis having taken a toll on the country.
"Other than the martial law-related topics, there are not many issues that can be raised at debates," he said.
Some other observers point to fundamental changes in the way people consume media.
Rhee June-woong, a professor of media and communication at Seoul National University, said the way viewership ratings are estimated in South Korea does not reflect the shifting media consumption patterns with the advent of the digital era.
"The long-term trend is that fewer people are watching TV debates live. Even so, (some of them) would still consume it through short-form video clips or viral internet memes," Rhee said.
"Anyway, the standard viewership ratings for TV are clearly declining. Why? Because fewer people are watching TV in real time."
Hwang Yong-suk, a professor of media and communication at Konkuk University, echoed Rhee, saying, "Looking at the way content in TV debates spreads to people, I can assume that a growing number of eligible voters would have received it via online channels like YouTube."
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