Biden-Trump Debate Watched by Nearly 48 Million Viewers, CNN Says Highest-Rated Program in Its History

The early results are in, and CNN appeared to be the biggest winner from Thursday’s train wreck of a presidential debate. According to the news cabler’s report of Nielsen Fast National data, a combined 47.9 million total viewers watched the CNN Presidential Debate on TV. And in the key news demo of adults 25-54, an average of 12.6 million viewers watched.

That’s down from the first debate of 2020, which attracted nearly 73.1 million viewers, but there are several caveats attached. Thursday night’s debate was specifically run by CNN. Also, this was among the earliest presidential debates ever; the first 2020 debate was held at the end of September. And this is the first presidential debate since 1988 not handled by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

CNN also noted that there were more than 30 million “live starts” of the debate on YouTube and CNN digital platforms. According to CNN, it was also the biggest day ever for its new CNN on Max service, “nearly doubling the previous record.”

More bullet points from CNN include the debate making CNN’s networks No. 1 last night across cable, digital, streaming and broadcast. According to the network, the debate was the “most watched non-sports program of the year so far among both viewers 2+ and adults 25-54.”

CNN noted that the debates grabbed 11.4 million viewers specifically on CNN, CNN.com. CNN on Max, CNN en Español and HLN. In linear, CNN, CNN en Español and HLN grabbed 9.04 million viewers, ahead of Fox News (8.8 million) and ABC (8.7 million). MSNBC came in with 3.968 million.

(Breaking it down individually, CNN itself received 8.7 million total viewers, with 46,000 on CNN en Español and 251,000 on HLN.)

The 30 million views of the Presidential Debate on CNN’s digital properties and on YouTube makes it the biggest debate for it ever on CNN digital, the network said, and ties it with the network’s biggest live stream event ever. (That number is based on 2.3 million concurrent live views at 9:47 p.m. on CNN.com, Edition.CNN.com, CNNgo OTT apps and mobile apps for iOS and Android and CNN’s YouTube player).

The debate with President Joe Biden and former President Donald J. Trump was moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, and aired from 9 p.m. to 10:39 p.m. live from CNN’s studios in Atlanta. The debate was made available to Washington, D.C. TV news pool members, pool subscribers and CNN affiliates to be simulcast.