67 Million Tuned In for First Harris-Trump Debate, Surpassing Biden Matchup in Viewership

The inceptive presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump attracted around 67.1 million viewers across 17 television networks, crucially surpassing the 51 million who watched the Republican nominee face President Joe Biden in June.

Tuesday night’s 90-minute debate in Philadelphia, organized by ABC, was the first face-to-face meeting between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, featuring a high-stakes meeting on abortion, immigration, and the 2020 election results. The prediction surrounding the new Democratic candidate and her performance against the former president sparked interest in the broadcast.

The viewership for this debate easily outdo the June match-up between Trump and President Joe Biden, which was hosted by CNN and led to Biden’s withdrawal from the race and Harris’s rise. 

Although Tuesday’s debate attracted the largest television audience of the year for a non-sports event, it was a decrease from the 2020 first debate between Trump and Biden, which drew over 73 million viewers across all networks. In comparison, the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Trump in 2016 set a record with 84 million viewers.

Viewership habits have shifted significantly since 2016, and Nielsen does not capture the various streaming and social media platforms that many used to watch Tuesday’s debate. Although fewer Americans watched the debate on television compared to previous election years, millions more tuned in via digital platforms.

ABC, which hosted the debate, attracted the highest number of viewers with over 19 million people tuning in, followed by NBC with more than 10 million, and Fox News with over 9 million. The debate was the most-watched on any network in at least 16 years, with more than 7 million viewers on various Disney-owned streaming platforms, according to ABC.

Traditionally, presidential debates have been organized by the independent Commission on Presidential Debates, but this year the candidates departed from tradition by agreeing to debates hosted 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 of viewers watched, which provoked strong criticism from Trump and his followers.

After the broadcast, Trump mocked the network for the fact-checks, categorizing ABC as “the most fraudulent news organization, and that’s saying a lot.” The former president, who made at least 33 false claims during the debate, argued that the event was “three on one” and suggested that Disney’s FCC broadcast licenses should be rescinded because of the moderators’ behavior.

In the days leading up to the debate, Disney had removed its ABC-owned stations from DirecTV, the nation’s third-largest pay TV provider, due to a prolonged and contentious carriage dispute that also led to ESPN, FX, and other networks going dark on the satellite carrier’s lineup. Just hours before the debate, ABC offered DirecTV a free feed of the broadcast for a three-hour period, but DirecTV declined the offer, stating that it would cause confusion and that its subscribers could watch the debate on other networks.