Final Nielsen numbers are out, and an estimated 51.3 million watched Thursday night’s CNN Presidential Debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Additionally, an estimated 10.918 million viewers watched the debate within the advertiser-coveted demo of Adults 25-54.
CNN led all the networks in total viewers and the demo with 9.53 million viewers and 3.379 million viewers, respectively, from 9 to 10:39 p.m. ET. The first debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle is officially the highest-rated program in CNN’s history.
Additionally, these final numbers boosted CNN over Fox News, which finished first in the preliminary ratings. Fox News brought in 9.276 million viewers, while ABC News finished second in the demo with 2.431 million viewers.
CNN also says the debate had over 30 million live starts on its digital platforms and YouTube and was also the second-largest live event on Max, trailing the March Madness Final.
Below is a complete breakdown of how the nets performed in total viewers and the demo.
Total Viewers
CNN: 9,530,000
FNC: 9,276,000
ABC: 9,210,000
NBC: 5,390,000
CBS: 5,011,000
MSNBC: 4,122,000
Fox: 3,677,000
FBN: 397,000
Adults 25-54
CNN: 3,379,000
ABC: 2,431,000
FNC: 1,769,000
NBC: 1,521,000
Fox: 1,489,000
CBS: 1,388,000
MSNBC: 615,000
FBN: 84,000
Despite those big numbers, the CNN Presidential Debate actually trailed the 2020 presidential debates between Biden and Trump. Their first match-up in that election cycle had 73.1 million viewers, while 62.9 million viewers tuned in for the second debate. These number did surpass the 1996 debates between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole and 2000 debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
Not high viewership by recent historical standards (table put together by Pew) https://t.co/qkyxOeGTZZ pic.twitter.com/Dcmu0ntWLM
— Kyle Kondik (@kkondik) June 28, 2024