• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 30, 2020

An estimated 73.1 million Americans tuned in to watch the first debate of the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, a drop of 13% from the 84.0 million who watched the first presidential debate of the 2016 election on Sept. 26 of that year, according to estimates released this evening by Nielsen.

The decline comes despite the fact that more TV networks were included, as well as out-of-home and connected TV viewing, which were not factored into Nielsen's ratings in 2016.