With the ABC News Presidential Debate airing on a variety of channels and platforms, many questioned how big the audience would be for Tuesday’s event. We now know that answer.
Nearly 57.8 million viewers tuned into the coverage of Republican nominee Donald Trump debating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris Tuesday evening. Across eight networks, it earned a 32.8 rating and a 70 share.
ABC News led coverage of the event with 18.3 million viewers. Nearly 14 million watched the debate across Fox News (8.7 million), Fox Business Network (287,000), the FOX broadcast network (4.7 million), and its plethora of digital avenues. NBC saw the second-highest audience with 9.7 million viewers. MSNBC featured just over 6 million viewers. An additional 5.9 million tuned in on CBS, while CNN featured an audience of 4.1 million viewers during the 9-10:45 PM ET timeslot.
According to early estimates from Nielsen, those results are up 28% compared to the June debate between President Biden and former President Trump that ultimately saw Biden drop out of the race. That June debate saw an audience of 48 million, according to Nielsen. It was the highest-rated program in CNN history with an additional 30 million views taking place on YouTube.
As of this publication, the debate also saw more than 12 million views on the ABC News YouTube channel.
The top 10 markets by share were
Rank Market Share
1 Pittsburgh 44.2
2 Philadelphia 43.4
3 West Palm Beach 43.3
4 Minneapolis 38.7
5 Milwaukee 37.8
6 Detroit 37.4
T-7 New York 36.7
T-7 Kansas City 36.7
T-9 St. Louis 36.2
T-9 Providence 36.2
