Nielsen’s early measurement of Tuesday night’s presidential debate between vice president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump appears very strong.
Though finalized numbers will not be available until later in the day on Tuesday, a preliminary count shows that 57.5 million watched the debate. That marks a 12% from the 51.3 million who tuned in to Trump’s debate with president Joe Biden in June, before the latter dropped out to endorse Harris.
Tuesday’s total will only continue to climb, as most current data only accounts for telecasts across ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. Viewership on Telemundo, Univision, PBS, Scripps News, Newsmax, Fox Business, NewsNation, Headline News and BET, as well as out-of-home viewership, will be tallied soon, with streaming data to come later in the week.
The debate, which took place at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, was moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News. Unsurprisingly, given its strong viewership, the debate was also a major topic of conversation across social media. Among the most-talked-about moments was Trump’s reference to a debunked rumor about Haitian immigrants in Ohio: “They’re eating the dogs,” he said. “The people that came in — they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” Muir and Linsey stepped in multiple times to fact-check the former president — assuaging a major criticism of the moderation of CNN’s Trump-Biden Debate — including to point out that Springfield’s city manager has said there were “no credible reports” backing up the pet rumor.
More to come…
Source Agencies
