ABC and Fox News Score Big As Harris-Trump Debate Crushes Biden-Trump Debate In the Ratings

Tuesday’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump dwarfed the ratings of the last debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Cable and broadcast news networks all streamed the full debate from beginning to end from debate host ABC and its local affiliates. The winner among the cable networks was Fox News, which brought in 8,668,000 total viewers (1,823,000 in the 25-54 demographic). Fox’s local affiliates also topped the viewer numbers with 4,740,000 total viewers (1,855,000 A25-54).

MSNBC came in at 6,015,000 total viewers (1,115,000 A25-54) and CNN at 4,114,000 (1,453,000 A25-54)

But the big three networks blew the cablers out of the water, with the debate’s host network coming out on top: ABC brought in 18,312,000 total viewers (6,241,000 A25-540), NBC had 9,701,000 total viewers (3,578,000 A25-54), and CBS had 5,908,000 (1,804,000 A25-54). Broadcast channels reach more homes in the U.S. than cable ones, often resulting in larger audiences.

In total, according to early numbers (and not including streaming) and CNN’s Brian Stelter, more than 60 million viewers watched the Trump-Harris debate on Tuesday, topping the 51.3 million audience for the Biden-Trump debate in June. The full numbers from Tuesday night will be released later in the day and the total will tick up slightly.

Analyst Mike Mulvihill even put the possible total viewer number at 65 million, adding “an overnight rating of 32.8 and a 70 share across eight networks. That’s +28% higher than the Trump-Biden debate earlier this year.”

Here are the early figures from Nielsen Media Research:

EARLY DATA FROM NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH:

9-10:45PM/ET

FNC: 8,668,000 P2+; 1,823,000 A25-54

FOX: 4,740,000 P2+; 1,855,000 A25-54

FBN: 287,000 P2+; 59,000 A25-54

CNN: 4,114,000 P2+; 1,453,000 A25-54

MSNBC: 6,015,000 P2+; 1,115,000 A25-54

ABC: 18,312,000 P2+; 6,241,000 A25-54

NBC: 9,701,000 P2+; 3,578,000 A25-54

CBS: 5,908,000 P2+; 1,804,000 A25-54

9-11 PM/ET

FNC: 8,597,000 P2+; 1,816,000 A25-54

CNN: 4,127,000 P2+; 1,440,000 A25-54

MSNBC: 6,099,000 P2+; 1,121,000 A25-54

8-11PM/ET

FNC: 7,440,000 P2+; 1,524,000 A25-54

CNN: 3,413,000 P2+; 1,164,000 A25-54

MSNBC: 5,291,000 P2+; 930,000 A25-54

8:15-9PM/ET

FNC: 5,348,000 P2+; 1,017,000 A25-54

CNN: 2,097,000 P2+; 649,000 A25-54

MSNBC: 3,856,000 P2+; 585,000 A25-54

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