Ratings: ‘Once Upon a Time’ rises; Presidential Debate #2 down big

Apparently, there is one way to limit the number of people watching a Presidential Debate, and that’s rather simple: Air a new NFL game up against it on Saturday night.

The early numbers are in for the second debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, or at least they are from the major television networks. Save for NBC, who aired the aforementioned football instead, the debate scored a 37.2 household rating and a 53 audience share, a drop from the 46.2 / 63 that the first debate had. There were probably still tens of millions of viewers who watched across all networks, and it may have been difficult for some of them at times given how this has to be one of the most negative debates that we have seen placed on the air to date.

As for some other news on the night, the latest episode of “Once Upon a Time” managed to turn things around slightly, scoring a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That ties the show’s rating from the premiere, and so far this season the show is down just under 10% in the demo from season 5. That’s not terrible, provided that it holds. (We credit the show’s failures in the Black Swan storyline for the ratings dropped significantly through season 5 — go back and look at the decline in the ratings last fall for further evidence of that.)

Now, we will have the luxury of a full television lineup once more, and to go along with that, we will have the return of “Supergirl” over on The CW. That is the show we are the most curious about at present, given that early expectations are for that show to be the network’s #2 show behind “The Flash.” We will see if that turns out to be true.

For now, be sure to visit this link to read our review of the latest “Once Upon a Time” episode. (Photo: ABC.)