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TiVo: '47 percent' exchange most-watched

The most-watched moment of Thursday’s vice presidential debate was the exchange between Vice President Joe Biden and Paul Ryan over Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remarks, according to a report on Friday.

The first presidential showdown was noticeably missing any mention of the “47 percent” comments, but the remarks delivered the vice presidential debate’s most-watched moment, TiVo found in an analysis of viewership data across all broadcast and cable networks. Biden brought up the comments within the first half-hour of the debate — at 9:28 p.m. EST — when he talked about Romney’s economic policies and said “it shouldn't be surprising for a guy who says 47 percent of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility of their own lives.” The exchange with Ryan over those comments marked the top moment across all networks, TiVo found.

The second most-watched moment came just a few minutes later, at 9:33 p.m., with Biden responding to Ryan over the congressman’s requests for stimulus funds. "Any letter you send me, I'll entertain,” Biden said. Ryan replied, “I appreciate that, Joe.”

TiVo Research and Analytics Inc. uses anonymous viewing data and “gauges the interest in programming content by measuring the most rewound and re-watched moments in the debate.”