Debate season swings into gear for TV, candidates

From a television standpoint, CNN’s John King’s attempts to lighten the mood by asking candidates their preferences between Coke and Pepsi, or Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, were either seen as a silly distraction or a chance to see the candidates as humans instead of wonks.

Monday’s debate was seen by an average of 3.16 million viewers, the Nielsen Co. said Tuesday.

That may seem small in comparison to the 7.8 million people who watched “The Bachelorette’’ on ABC or the 5.3 million who saw the Stanley Cup Finals hockey game on NBC, but it’s big in the world of cable news. On a typical Monday night this year, CNN’s average audience is 652,000 people.

Though CNN’s presentation was widely seen as the debate season kickoff because it had more candidates, Fox News Channel actually went first. Its May 5 debate in South Carolina had only five candidates, not including the widely perceived frontrunner, Romney, or Newt Gingrich and Bachmann..

The 15 other Republican debates scheduled have sponsors including a variety of television networks, Politico, Google, YouTube, the Reagan Library and the Tea Party Express, according to the Republican National Committee. The next one is July 10 in Las Vegas.

It may seem like only political consultants would want to sit in front of their TVs through that gauntlet. But political programming was a big winner for TV networks during the last presidential election cycle, and Monday’s numbers show there’s a curiosity that can’t be denied.

“Debates can be game-changers,’’ said veteran political consultant Mark McKinnon. “The question if you’re a candidate is, do you want the game changed?’’

That’s certainly not the case with front-runners. But for second-tier candidates such as Herman Cain, these debates represent an opportunity to be seen at least for a few hours on an equal footing with rivals. They can’t come close to this kind of exposure otherwise.

Yet exposure isn’t always flattering. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani saw his appeal diminish the more debates he appeared in four years ago, said Kellyanne Conway, a Republican strategist and pollster.