Trump-Harris Debate Watched by 67.1 Million Viewers, Up 31% vs. Trump-Biden (Final Update)
More than 67 million viewers tuned in for the first presidential debate between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Based on final Nielsen numbers (now including streaming), 67.1 million people watched on Tuesday night, with ABC leading all outlets with an audience of 19.1 million. NBC followed with 10.1 million viewers, while Fox News easily led the cable news pack with north of 9 million viewers.
Fox News Media as a whole, with Fox proper (4.9 mil), Fox Business (295K), FoxNews.com and Fox Nation all folded in, accounted for 14.4 million viewers. MSNBC drew 6.4 million, CBS did 6.2 mil, and CNN delivered 4.4 mil.
Update: ABC News Live on streaming and digital platforms, Including Hulu and Disney+, added another 7 mil to the final total.
Trump’s first presidential debate of this election season, opposite then-Democratic nominee President Joe Biden, delivered an audience of 51.3 million. The all-time record for a presidential debate, meanwhile, was set in 2016, when Hillary Clinton’s first face-off against Trump was witnessed by 84 million viewers.
ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis moderated Tuesday night’s audience-free spectacle from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The debate ran for more than 90 minutes, with two commercial breaks.
In a TVLine reader poll, 74% of respondents said that Harris won the debate (as of press time), while moderators Muir and Davis earned an average grade of “C+.”
In the aforementioned first presidential debate, Trump trounced Biden (with 69% of the vote), while CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash earned an average grade of “C+” as moderators.
Much appreciated Commentators fact checking!
I’d love to see how much the numbers increase if you include the streaming numbers. 2.3 million were watching the ABC News YouTube livestream at 9:30 PM ET.
We eventually fold in all numbers made available from a reputable source. Stay tuned for updates!
Out of interest are the comparisons to 2020/2016 figures then based on their ‘final’ figures or similarly the overnight.
I assume the former but just curious.
Finals. Life is too short to look up overnights from years and years ago,
Matt mito you ain’t lying
Oh I figured but was curious. Cheers!
Actually 58 million people watched Kamala Harris, while 120 million people watched Tronald Dump…
No kidding. Like a car accident you can’t look away from.
Good performance from the soon to be President Kamala Harris.
God willing, I hope this to be true.
Anyone who saw the debate, and truly believe Donald won, needs to be put in a straightjacket.
Trump looked like an angry old man last night. It was pretty comical–better than anything done on SNL.
It was the best thing I’ve seen in a long time. Trump took the bait each and every time. And he couldn’t/wouldn’t even look at Harris. The expressions on her face when he was talking were priceless. It was glorious.
It makes me laugh when the GOP complains about the fact checkers. They would rather support lies than the truth. And the truth is put out there, they whine. Real journalists strive for the truth to be told, fake ones prefer lies.
Low bar to fact check his bajillion lies per minute. They should have cut off his mic. He can’t debate he just has mouth diarrhea