Nielsen television ratings for Tuesday night’s first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump outperformed the previous debate with President Joe Biden in late June.
According to Nielsen ratings data, approximately 67.1 million viewers were watching the ABC News simulcast across CNN, Fox News, Fox Business and MSNBC platforms, a 31% increase from the last debate.
The matchup between Trump and Biden on June 27 garnered around 51.3 million people. The Biden-Trump debate earlier this summer was ultimately a pivotal moment for the Democratic ticket that prompted Biden to drop out of running for president and endorse Harris.
According to research data by Disney, ABC netted over 19 million viewers, making it the most-watched debate on any broadcast network in 16 years.
Fox News Media reported that its simulcast of ABC’s presidential debate across its platforms Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Network, foxnews.com, and Fox Nation scored an average of 14.4 million viewers Tuesday night.
The preliminary viewership data are likely to increase as streaming data and other telecaster information continue to be compiled this week.
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The presidential debate was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and was co-moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News.
The final night of the Democratic National Convention scored 26.2 million viewers when Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president in the 2024 election. The 2024 Republican National Convention averaged 25.4 million viewers across networks on the final night that featured Trump’s speech.