A recent vice-presidential debate between Senator JD Vance and Governor Tim Walz drew in just under 39 million viewers across eight networks, falling short by 20 million viewers compared to the 2020 face-off between Vice President Kamala Harris and former Vice President Mike Pence. Early data from Nielsen, Fox, and MSNBC indicated that CBS, the host network, had an average viewership of 9.14 million, with other networks like Fox News, ABC News, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, and Fox Business also broadcasting the debate.
The 2020 vice-presidential debate had initially garnered approximately 51 million viewers across the same networks, eventually reaching 59 million viewers, making it the most-watched vice-presidential debate since its inception in 1976. Additional detailed viewership numbers from Nielsen are expected to be released later. The recent vice-presidential debate also saw notably fewer viewers compared to this year’s presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump, which attracted 67.14 million viewers across 17 networks in the previous month.