A summer of quadrennial events—and an unprecedented political shake-up—led to a spike in TV usage that pushed tens of millions of people to tune into live special programming, with the transformative first and only presidential debate between Donald Trump and President Joe Biden winning the summer on total viewership.
Conventions, a debate and an assassination attempt drew big audiences to broadcast TV this summer.
The June 27 debate between Trump and Biden was the most-watched TV event of the season with an audience of 51.3 million people, according to Nielsen data, which fell short compared to debates of presidential election cycles past but was the highest-rated program in the history of CNN, the network said.
Tied for the second most-watched event between Memorial Day and Labor Day was Kamala Harris’ Aug.22 nomination acceptance speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention and Biden's July 24 Oval Office address announcing the end of his reelection campaign—both of which were watched by 28.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
The major election-related events narrowly beat out the 28.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock who tuned in to watch the Olympic opening ceremony in July, marked by a controversial sketch and come-back performance of iconic singer Celine Dion.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump scored the fifth-largest audience of the summer in mid-July when 28.4 million people tuned in to watch his speech on the final night of the Republican National Convention.
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30.6 million. That's how many people, on average, watched the Paris Olympics every day during it’s two-week run on NBC and Peacock, the network said—watching various heroics from Simone Biles, Steph Curry, LeBron James, French swimmer Léon Marchand and Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec—though they weren’t all tuned into a single event at once. That audience number combines viewers across both the Paris primetime broadcast (2 to 5 p.m. EDT) and the U.S. primetime show (8 to 11 p.m.) Events during the opening Sunday of the games, which included gymnastics qualifiers, Marchand winning gold in the 400m individual medley and the U.S. women's rugby team's win over Brazil, drew the most of any single day with 41.5 million viewers across platforms.
Simone Biles practices on the balance beam during a Gymnastics training session ahead of the Paris ... [+]
Tens of millions also turned into news outlets July 13 after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear during an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally. At 8 p.m. EDT, more than 19 million tuned into Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS on that Saturday—normally a low-viewership day for news outlets—for information on the attempt on his life.
The presidential debate between Trump and Biden, the then-Democratic nominee, permanently changed the 2024 election landscape. Biden was seen as confused and unable to make articulate points, leading party members to pile on the pressure for him to drop out of the race and leave room for a new candidate. One month later, he backed out of the race and his vice president, Harris, stepped in. What followed was a blitz for Harris to announce her candidacy that included the nomination of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate and a re-shaping of the competitive landscape between her and Trump.
Trump and Harris have agreed to their first debate scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC News.