The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew an estimated 67.1 million viewers across 17 television networks — blowing well past the 51 million who watched the Republican nominee take on President Joe Biden in June.
Tuesday night’s 90-minute matchup in Philadelphia hosted by ABC marked the first time Harris and Trump had met face-to-face, resulting in a high-stakes clash over abortion, immigration and the 2020 election results. Interest in the new Democratic candidate and how she would fare against the former president helped boost interest in the telecast.
The viewership easily surpassed the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden hosted by CNN, a face-off that ultimately led to Biden’s withdrawal from the race and Harris’ ascendancy.
While Tuesday’s debate drew the largest television audience of the year for a non-sports event, it represented a drop in total audience from 2020, when more than 73 million people watched the first debate between Trump and Biden across all television networks. In 2016, a record 84 million tuned in to the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Trump.
Viewership habits have changed dramatically since 2016, and Nielsen does not account for the myriad streaming and social media platforms that many also used to watch Tuesday’s debate. While fewer Americans watched the debate on television than in previous election years, millions more watched on digital platforms.
ABC, which hosted the debate, drew the most viewers with more than 19 million people tuning in, followed by NBC with more than 10 million, and Fox News with more than 9 million.
The debate was the most-watched on any network in at least 16 years with more than 7 million tuning in on the various Disney-owned streaming platforms, ABC said.
While the presidential debates have for decades been held by the independent Commission on Presidential Debates, the candidates bucked tradition this year, agreeing to debates held directly by television news outlets.
During Tuesday night’s debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked Trump in real-time, correcting the record at least three times as millions watched at home, drawing fierce backlash from Trump and his allies.
Following the broadcast, Trump assailed the network over the fact-checks, calling ABC “the most dishonest news organization, and that’s saying a lot.” The former president, who made at least 33 false claims during the debate, repeatedly insisted the event “was three on one” and suggested Disney’s FCC broadcast licenses should be revoked due to the moderators’ conduct.
In the days leading up to the faceoff, Disney pulled its ABC-owned stations from DirecTV, the nation’s third largest pay TV provider, in a bitter and protracted carriage dispute that’s forced ESPN, FX and other networks go dark on the satellite carrier’s lineup. Hours before the telecast, ABC offered to provide DirecTV a free feed of the broadcast for a three-hour period. But the carrier rejected the offer, saying it would only sow confusion and its subscribers could watch the debate on other networks.
