First 2024 Trump vs. Biden Debate Lands 51.3 Million Viewers

Tony Maglio

28 June 2024 at 1:28 pm·3-min read

Updated on Friday, June, 28, 2024 at 4:34 p.m. ET: With the expected Nielsen update now available, the Trump/Biden debate drew 51.27 million viewers. Earlier-available data had the number at 47.9 million viewers, but that tally did not include out-of-home, mobile, or PC viewing.

Also: CNN is now on top of Fox News Channel with 9.53 million viewers, the most for any individual network, vs. FNC’s 9.276 million.

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Previously:

There’s no debate about it: Thursday was a big night for CNN, and for the 22 other networks and platforms that carried the U.S. Presidential Debate.

According to preliminary Nielsen numbers, the simulcast of President Joe Biden vs. former president Donald Trump averaged 47.9 million viewers. These early numbers do not include out-of-home viewing, mobile, and PC viewing. Updated numbers will be revealed in a few hours and they will bring the total a bit higher. No matter what that adjustment is, however, it won’t bring the tally close to the Biden-Trump debates of 2020.

Thursday’s debate, hosted and moderated by CNN, was simulcast across 23 platforms in total: ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, News Nation, Newsmax, C-SPAN, Scripps News, Univision, Bloomberg, Telemundo, Fox Business, TheGrio, The First, OAN, BET, Newsmax 2, Spectrum News, and Merit Street. Nielsen measures only 17 of those.

CNN averaged 8.7 million viewers tune in to its cable news channel. Fox News Channel averaged 8.8 million, the most for any individual platform. The debate began at 9 p.m. ET and ended at 10:39 p.m. ET, though live coverage continued in analysis form.

While this was the first debate of the 2024 presidential-election cycle, Biden and Trump have, of course, debated before. And it’s been even bigger — much bigger, in fact. The first 2020 Presidential Debate, on September 29, 2020, drew 73.132 million total viewers, good enough for third place all-time. That one was simulcast on 16 different platforms: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Telemundo, Univision, PBS, CNN, CNN en Español, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, Newsy, Vice, and WGN America.

Their final debate (the second one was canceled because President Trump would not participate in a virtual debate; it was COVID times) in 2020 received 62.973 million viewers on October 22, 2020. That one was simulcast across the same platforms as the first, save Fox’s broadcast network, which had Game 1 of the Dodgers-Rays World Series.

The most-watched U.S. Presidential Debate also featured Trump. On September 26, 2016, Trump faced off with Hillary Clinton in what would be their first of three rounds. The debate drew a whopping 84.0 million viewers. For a bit of context, that is a larger TV audience than half of the Super Bowls in the 1990s saw. Speaking of NFL football, Clinton-Trump II (66.5 million viewers) went up against “Sunday Night Football” on NBC.

Trump-Clinton I defeated the sole Jimmy Carter vs. Ronald Reagan debate (80.6 million viewers) in 1980.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5.

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