The numbers are in: 51.3 million Americans tuned in stay to observe Thursday night time’s televised debate between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.
The prime-time bout, organized by CNN and simulcast on greater than a dozen networks, was simply the most-viewed second of the 2024 presidential marketing campaign, the type of mass civic gathering that’s more and more uncommon in a choose-your-own-news period of media. And the determine launched on Friday by Nielsen, which largely measures conventional TV units, didn’t embrace the seemingly hundreds of thousands extra who watched on digital information websites and social media platforms.
The dimension of the TV viewers — just like that for an N.F.L. convention championship sport — might be grim information for the Biden marketing campaign, given the shaky and stumbling efficiency by the president, which set off panic within the higher echelons of the Democratic Party.
But viewership was additionally down 30 % from the primary Biden-Trump debate in September 2020, which notched greater than 73 million viewers. Nielsen stated Thursday’s matchup in Atlanta was the lowest-rated general-election debate because the last assembly of George W. Bush and John Kerry in 2004.
Part of the decline will be defined by timing: The Biden-Trump debate occurred far earlier within the yr than standard, nicely earlier than many informal voters have change into targeted on the election. Overall TV audiences are smaller within the summertime, too, and the variety of households with lively cable subscriptions has dropped precipitously since 2020.
CNN, which hosted the talk (and equipped the moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper), had the very best viewership of any community, though solely simply. About 9.5 million folks watched stay on CNN, in contrast with 9.3 million who watched on Fox News and 9.2 million on ABC.
CNN was the clear winner amongst adults 25 to 54, crucial group for advertisers. In the ten p.m. hour, which included a spherical of post-debate evaluation, Fox News pulled forward of CNN in complete viewers.
The TV viewers for the talk skewed older; roughly two-thirds of viewers had been over 55, Nielsen stated. Those who tuned in to observe the candidates didn’t tune out: The stay TV viewers stayed roughly the identical all through the 99-minute telecast.
For CNN, which has endured a rocky interval of administration modifications and sagging scores, the talk was a much-needed shot within the arm. The community has fallen far behind its rivals; earlier than Thursday’s debate, it was on monitor to report its lowest-rated month in prime time since 1991.
Whether one other head-to-head presidential occasion happens this yr is an open query. The candidates have agreed to fulfill once more on Sept. 10 for a debate sponsored by ABC. But Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump may select to withdraw from that occasion relying on the place the race stands after Labor Day.
