We examine the impact of direct presidential elections on legislative party systems. We argue that presidential power (PRESPOW) shapes the effective number of presidential candidates in a way that has a reductive effect on the legislative party system within an intermediary range of PRESPOW. We also argue that this proposition should be tested solely on the population of countries with direct presidential elections. We find that the effect of presidential coattails is less important than has typically been suggested and that we need to think carefully about how to capture variation in PRESPOW when trying to estimate its effect.