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The VP debate between 2024 candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance captured an impressive audience.
The Tuesday debate, which was hosted by CBS News, brought in 43.15 million viewers across 15 networks as it aired live from New York City beginning at 9 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen. The audience was comprised of 3.013 million people ages 18 to 34, 9.47 million people ages 35 to 54 and 29.7 million people ages 55+. Among the networks included in the figure were ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Merit Street Media, Scripps News, CNN, CNNe, FOX News Channel, FOX Business Network, MSNBC, NBC Universo, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.
For comparison, the Walz-Vance debate drew in a 25.5% smaller audience than the 2020 VP debate between current VP and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former VP Mike Pence, which scored a viewership of 57.9 million in October 2020, according to Nielsen.
As the event was simulcast across the major cable news and broadcast networks, CBS scored the biggest audience of the night with 9.141 million viewers, while ABC drew 6.099 million viewers, NBC brought in 5.443 million viewers and Fox scored 2.417 million viewers. Among the cable news networks, Fox News drew the biggest audience with a viewership of 7.689 million, with MSNBC scoring 4.647 million viewers and CNN bringing in 3.183 million viewers. Fox Business added another 255,000 viewers.
In September, the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, which was hosted by ABC News and aired live from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, drew in 67.14 million viewers. Viewership for Harris’ first presidential debate was up 30.8% from President Joe Biden and Trump’s debate in June, which drew 51.3 million total viewers.
During the Wednesday VP debate, which marked the first time Walz and Vance had met in person, the Minnesota governor and Ohio senator tackled issues from abortion, the Middle East, immigration, inflation and gun violence. Like his running mate, Vance refused to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election, which led Walz to kick off an impassioned speech about democracy.
“That’s what we’re asking you, America,” Walz said after noting former VP Pence didn’t side with Trump about the 2020 election. “Will you stand up? Will you give your oath of office even if the President doesn’t? And I think Kamala Harris would agree, she wouldn’t have picked me if she didn’t think I would do that.”
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