A total of 67.1 million people watched the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, a 31% increase from the June debate between Trump and US President Joe Biden, which ultimately resulted in the president dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
The debate was hosted by ABC News but aired on 17 different networks, according to the Nielsen company. The Trump-Biden debate in June was watched by 51.3 million people.
Tuesday’s tally falls short of the record for a presidential debate, when 84 million people watched the first face-off between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. The first debate between Biden and Trump in 2020 reached 73.1 million.
There was a notable increase in younger and middle-aged viewers, with 53% more adults ages 18 to 49 watching Harris debate Trump than Biden doing the same, according to Nielsen data.
Among cable viewers, the largest number was on Fox News, with 9.1 million people tuning in to the network known for its pro-Trump following.
Harris was generally considered to have won the debate. A survey flash A CNN poll of debate viewers showed Harris doing better by a 63%-37% margin. Before the debate, those voters were split 50-50 on who would win. Among Harris-supporting viewers CNN polled, 96% said she had a better debate, while 69% of Trump-supporting viewers said so.
Trump’s campaign publicly claimed victory, but some of his aides privately acknowledged that he was unlikely to convince swing voters to follow his path, they said. Tutor people who know the subject.
The public places the debate approximately between the ends of the series Seinfeld (76.3 million) and Friends (52.5 million).
Taylor Swift effect
Minutes after it ended, Taylor Swift endorsed Harris-Walz’s candidacy to her 283 million Instagram followers in a post that included a link to the government’s voter registration website, Vote.gov.
The site received nearly 338,000 new visits in the hours that followed, a General Services Administration spokesperson told MSNBC.
Swift’s support is likely most influential among Americans under 35, with about 30% of that group saying they are more likely to vote for someone Swift supports, according to a poll conducted for News weekAccording to the survey, 18% of voters say they are “more likely” or “significantly more likely” to vote for a candidate endorsed by Swift, while 17% say they are less likely.
No further debates are scheduled between the two presidential candidates, although the Harris campaign has called for one and Fox News Channel has publicly proposed alternatives. CBS will host a vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and J.D. Vance on October 1.
The stakes for Tuesday’s debate were high, not only because of the impending election, but also because the last presidential debate set in motion a series of events that led to Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
While CNN chose not to correct any mistakes made by the candidates during the Trump-Biden debate in June, ABC instead questioned Trump’s statements on abortion, immigration, the 2020 election and violent crime.
