CNN —CNN’s Thursday night debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was watched by 47.9 million viewers on television, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen.
On television, CNN drew 8.7 million viewers on its flagship channel, including 3 million in the advertiser coveted 25-54 demographic, the network said Friday.
The right-wing talk channel Fox News drew 8.8 million viewers, ABC News saw 8.7 million viewers and MSNBC drew 3.968 million viewers.
The nearly 48 million who watched Thursday night’s debate on television represents a 35% drop in audience from 2020, when more than 73 million people watched the first debate between Trump and Biden across all television networks.
The previous most-watched program in CNN’s history occurred in 2015, when a GOP debate featuring Trump and a slew of Republican rivals averaged 23.1 million viewers.
Persons:
CNN —, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Trump, “, ”, Nicholas Kristof, David Chalian, Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, Bash, he’d, Jake, Dana
Organizations:
CNN, Nielsen, Fox News, ABC News, MSNBC, Max, Trump, Biden, YouTube, GOP, New York Times
Locations:
Atlanta, Trump