Debate Ratings: How Many People Watched Trump vs. Harris?

Amanda Bell
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Donald Trump and Kamala Harris at the ABC News Presidential Debate”

UPDATE: Final numbers are in, and 67.1 million viewers tuned in all tolled. 19.049 million were on ABC News.

PREVIOUSLY (9/11/24, 12:25 p.m.): As expected, the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on Tuesday (September 10) night was a very widely watched and much-discussed televised event. This was the first face-to-face (and possibly only) meeting of the nominees, following up on the consequential June debate between Trump and then-candidate Joe Biden.

So just how many people tuned in to watch the debate? Complete network viewership numbers are expected to be released later on in the day, but the early overnight figures (which are known to underestimate the total number of audiences, as they are based on broadcast averages for certain time periods and don’t include a full view of the total viewership) are in. 

According to analyst Michael Mulvihill, this debate saw a marked increase in viewership over the Trump-Biden debate, as he wrote, “Last night debate earned an overnight rating of 32.8 and a 70 share across eight networks. That’s +28% higher than the Trump-Biden debate earlier this year.”

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He went on to add a caveat, saying, “The 28% growth in the overnights ratings implies a national audience of over 65 million, but overnights haven’t been all that reliable as a predictor of the nationals lately, at least in sports, so I’d make that project with low confidence.”

Mulvihill went on to add that the biggest segments of broadcast audiences came from the following cities, many of which are in swing states: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia (the site of the debate), West Palm Beach (where Trump lives), Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, New York, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Providence.

Full ratings figures from Nielsen’s report on the Trump-Biden debate that took place in June revealed that a total of 51.3 million people tuned in.

This post will be updated when the full figures for Tuesday’s debate are available.




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  1. O

    OrangeWeights

    First time I saw “chameleon” actually speak in public! Her and Biden love hide and seek! Putin will eat her up in one swoop!

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    Antonio Montealegre

    Loved it when Ms. Harris took a dig at people leaving at Trump's rallies because they were "exhausted and bored" and then The Donald claiming that Kamala's audiences were "bussed in"! Also loved her cracks at Putin "eating him for lunch". On a more serious note, I was also glad she mentioned him putting an ad for the now-exonerated Central Park Five to be executed and that his only response was that they claimed they were guilty before changing their testimony which I'm guessing was his reason for never apologizing. (The only time he ever did that was for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after the trail he went through concerning Chirstine Blasey Ford which I don't think Trump would have done if Kavanaugh didn't put a performance denying her accusations as if he were trained by Trumip!)

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      OrangeFries

      Sad we still don't have a clue how Ms. Kamala will fix the economy, unrest in the foreign countries and the most Important GET us back to our way of living when President Trump was in office!!! Gas-food-taxes up so high now can't hardly keep up ??☹☹

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    GreenCloud

    Bye-bye to her leaving the rodeo 😞😞😴😞😞😭😂😂😭🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

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    GoldBlowdryer

    She doesn’t have a chance!

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