VP Debate Earns 43M Viewers, 26% Below 2020's

CBS’ Vice Presidential Debate between Tim Walz and J.D. Vance earned 43.1 million viewers on Tuesday, according to Nielsen -- 26% below viewing of the 2020 Vice-Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.

Fifteen networks aired the Walz-Vance debate event. The top five were CBS, with 9.57 million viewers; Fox News Channel, 7.9 million; ABC, 6.4 million; NBC, 5.7 million; and MSNBC, 4.9 million.

Other networks that aired the debate included Fox Television Network, CNN, Fox Business Network, PBS, NBC Universo, Newsmax, NewsNation, Merit Street Media, Scripps News, and CNNe.

The largest audience segment was viewers 55 years and up, totaling 29.7 million, followed by persons 35-54 at 9.5 million and persons 18-34 at 3.0 million.

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Four years ago, in 2020, the Vice Presidential Debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris registered 57.9 million for seven networks airing the event. The 2016 Vice Presidential Debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence -- which also aired on seven networks -- took in 36 million.

Audience estimates from Nielsen are inclusive of out-of-home viewing for all reported networks except Merit Street Media, Newsmax, NewsNation, PBS and Scripps News, which do not include out-of-home data.

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