About 58 million people watched Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump debate on television Tuesday night, multiple outlets reported, citing early figures from Nielsen—an increase in viewership from the June debate between Trump and his then-opponent President Joe Biden.
Tuesday’s debate had about 12% more viewership compared to June’s debate between Joe Biden and ... [+]
An estimated 57.5 million people watched Harris and Trump face off for the first time on major broadcast and cable networks, Reuters reported—about a 12% increase from the 51.3 million of people who watched Trump and Biden in June.
NBC News reported the first figure included people who viewed the debate on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News or MSNBC, and the total number is expected to rise when Nielsen releases viewership numbers from more television networks.
For comparison, the two debates between Biden and Trump in 2020 drew 73.1 million viewers and 63 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
The most-watched presidential debate in recent history was in 2016 when 84 million people tuned in to watch the first debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
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Tuesday night’s ABC debate was the first time Trump and Harris met in person, and it was widely considered the most important night of the 2024 campaign yet. They touched on major topics including the economy, abortion, wars in Ukraine and Israel and each of their past records. Harris was largely seen as the winner of the debate by pundits who said she successfully goaded Trump to get off topic and defend himself angrily rather than address the questions and topics at hand. Early polls also showed people largely considered Harris to have won the debate, with ABC News reporting Wednesday afternoon that an average of 57% of respondents thought Harris performed better.
2.7. That’s how many points Harris led Trump by in national polls, on average, on Wednesday as of 6 p.m. EDT, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Whether Harris and Trump agree to another debate. The Harris campaign has said it is all in on having the pair face off again in a second debate, which they previously agreed to in principle but did not specify a date or time. Trump, on the other hand, questioned in a Truth Social post why he should participate in another debate after he “won” Tuesday’s. Trump’s post contradicted what one of his advisers, Jason Miller, said on CNN on Wednesday, when he implied Trump would participate in a second debate and said “the onus here is on Kamala Harris to . . . show up.”