Early estimates show that nearly 70 million viewers tuned into the ABC News-hosted presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, September 10, more than 15 million viewers higher than the Thursday, June 27 CNN-hosted debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.
ABC News
On ABC, “Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – ABC News Presidential Debate” averaged 19.049 million viewers, making it the most-watched debate on any network in at least 16 years, and ranked as the highest-rated broadcast across broadcast and cable among all key sales demographics, including Adults 25-54 (6.596 million), the demographic most important to news programming, and Adults 18-49 (5.663 million).
Factoring in Hulu, Disney+, ABC News Live, and the ABC Owned Television Stations apps, the debate added another +7.4 million viewers, bringing the overall total to 26.4 million viewers across the Disney-owned linear and streaming platforms. Disney notes that the debate was the most-viewed live event by hours streamed on Disney+ in the U.S. to date.
With a simulcast across multiple broadcast and cable networks, among other outlets, the ABC News-hosted debate averaged 67.135 million viewers overall, outdelivering the “CNN Presidential Debate” (51.266 million) by 37% or +15.869 million viewers. The ABC-hosted debate also outdelivered the CNN-hosted debate among Adults 25-54 (+54% – 21.322 million vs. 13.811 million) and Adults 18-49 (+53% – 54.4 million vs. 11.664 million).
“ABC News’ “Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – ABC News Presidential Debate” ranked a solid No. 1 in Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 on each of ABC’s Top 6-marketed Owned Television Stations. Combining impressions, ABC’s top six OTV stations more than doubled the performances of its No. 2 competitor in Total Viewers (4,549,000; +151% vs. No. 2 Fox News) and Adults 25-54 (1,563,000; +127% vs. No. 2 NBC). Additionally, ABC’s top six OTV stations outperformed the combined performance of its next two competitors in Total Viewers by 25% (vs. Fox News Channel and MSNBC) and the next three closest networks combined in Adults 25-54 by 3% (vs. NBC, CNN and Fox News Channel).
Leading into the ABC News debate (8:00-9:00 p.m.), ABC’s pre-debate coverage was led by “Race for the White House,” which ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers (7.587 million), leading Fox News Channel’s “Fox News Democracy” by +32% (5.731 million – 8:20 – 9:00 p.m.) and NBC’s “NBC News Presidential Debate Countdown” by 76% (4.322 million – 8:00-9:01 p.m.).
ABC’s post-debate coverage, titled “Post Debate Analysis” ran from 10:45-11:04 p.m. and ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers (13.622 million), outperforming Fox News Channel’s “ABC Presidential Debate/Analysis” by +62% (8.412 million– 10:45 – 11:00 p.m.) and NBC’s “NBC News Presidential Debate Countdown” by 89% (7.221 million – 10:40-11:00 p.m.).
“World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir and “World News Tonight” Sunday anchor and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis served as moderators.
The ABC News presidential debate was made available to Washington, D.C., Television News Pool members, Pool subscribers, ABC Affiliates, and many other news organizations around the world to be simulcast.
Marc Burstein is senior executive producer, and Molly Shaker is executive producer of ABC News Special Events. Seni Tienabeso is executive director of ABC News Live. Simone Swink is the executive producer of the pre- and post-debate specials.