The debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew a stunning viewership, far surpassing the 51 million who watched the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. This high-stakes Philadelphia showdown, moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis, was the first face-to-face meeting between Harris and Trump, tackling hot-button issues like abortion, immigration, war, crime, and the 2020 election results
67 Million tuned in for Harris-Trump debate
The political arena sizzled as Democratic hopeful Kamala Harris and Republican heavyweight Donald Trump went head-to-head for the first time since Biden bowed out following his debate debacle with Trump in June. This Harris-Trump clash drew an estimated 67.1 million viewers across 17 TV networks, smashing the old record of 51 million viewers by a huge margin according to Nielsen data.
Hosted by ABC News and broadcast widely the debate had viewers on the edge of their seats to see how the new Democratic candidate would do against the former president as it was predicted to be the real game changer of her presidential campaign. The debate also became a hot trend on microblogging site Twitter as it captured the top trends of the day followed by Taylor Swift endorsing Kamala Harris and the aftermath.
Decline in debate viewership over the years
Even though Tuesday’s debate got one of the biggest crowds in recent memory, it was way down from what we usually see during elections. CNN says that the Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump debate pulled in an estimated 67.1 million people, which was less than the 73 million who watched the first Trump-Biden debate back in 2020. This drop is just one of many, with the 2016 debate between Hillary Clinton and Trump hitting a record high of 84 million viewers.
The way people watch TV and use social media has changed a lot, and this has made it harder to keep track of who’s watching and how they’re watching. The usual ways of measuring this, like Nielsen’s, don’t really show the big picture when it comes to shows like TikTok, where a lot of Gen Z people tuned in for debate and highlights.
On the day of the debate, ABC led with 19 million viewers, followed by NBC with over 10 million and Fox News with more than 9 million. ABC mentioned that this debate was the most-watched on any network in at least 16 years, and over 7 million people tuned in on the different streaming services owned by Disney.
Who won the debate between Trump and Harris?
A CNN survey found that people watching the debate liked Kamala Harris a lot more, with a clear lead of 63-37. Meanwhile, a YouGov survey showed she was ahead of Donald Trump by 43-28 among people who could vote. Even Fox News pundits conceded that Harris outperformed Donald Trump.
The excitement just got bigger when Taylor Swift backed Harris, but we’re still not sure who really came out on top. The official surveys of people who weren’t sure yet are still pending and could take a few days to show if either candidate did a better job changing how people feel about them.
