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Leading up to the 2008 U. S. presidential election, CNN devoted large amounts of coverage to politics, including hosting candidate debates during the Democratic and Republican primary seasons.

On June 3 and June 5, CNN teamed up with Saint Anselm College to sponsor the New Hampshire Republican and Democratic Debates.

Later in 2007, the channel hosted the first CNN-YouTube presidential debates, a non-traditional format where viewers were invited to pre-submit questions over the internet via the YouTube video-sharing service.

In 2008, CNN partnered with The Los Angeles Times to host two primary debates leading up to its coverage of Super Tuesday.

CNN's debate and election night coverage led to its highest ratings of the year, with January 2008 viewership averaging 1. 1 million viewers, a 41 % increase over the previous year.