If your friends told you they were staying in to watch Saturday Night Live this weekend, chances are they weren't talking about that show on NBC.

According to an internal C-Span email obtained by TPMDC, the network's website served up 201,741 live streams of the House debate of the health care reform bill Saturday, the highest online viewership C-Span has seen since President Obama was inaugurated in January. (A C-Span employee told us the network doesn't track how many people watch its three cable channels on TV.)

In D.C., watching the day-long debate unfold became something of a social event for nerds. Twitter was alive with snarky comments about the Representatives speaking at any given moment and at least a few bars tuned TVs to the debate, running it alongside college football.