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.
The 90-minute debate, which sent shockwaves through the political world, was simulcast across 22 networks. CNN, which hosted the debate from its Atlanta studios, offered a live feed of the telecast to any network free of charge but with strict conditions over its presentation and branding.
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 telecast also drew the largest audience on record for CNN on the Max streaming service, though the network did not disclose audience figures.
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. In 2016, a record 84 million tuned in to the first debate matchup between Hillary Clinton and Trump.
While fewer Americans watched the debate on television than in previous election years, millions more watched on digital platforms.
CNN said the event generated more than 30 million views on its digital properties and on YouTube. “Across CNN’s digital platforms, the debate was CNN’s biggest debate ever and tied with our biggest live stream event ever with 2.3 million concurrent live views at 9:47 p.m,” the network said.
For CNN, Thursday night’s debate was a marketing coup, coming at a pivotal moment for the network as it works to reverse declining ratings and embarks on a strategy to revolutionize the four-decade-old network in the digital era.
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.
Thursday’s primetime matchup was a break from general election debate tradition, which has long been hosted by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and shared with television networks. While primary debates have traditionally been hosted by individual networks, the candidates and CNN bucked tradition by completely removing the commission from the equation, holding the debate before the candidates were even officially their party’s nominees.
The debate represents a much-needed shot in the arm for CNN, which has seen its ratings fall after changes to its on-air lineup and as traditional television viewers increasingly cut the cord in favor of streaming services.
Presidential election cycles typically result in a ratings bonanza for news networks as audiences tune in to watch the unfolding race — but 2024 has thus far proven to be the exception, with virtually all news outlets seeing a decline in audience since 2020.
While much of the attention in the aftermath of the debate was on Biden’s performance, CNN’s hands-off approach to fact checking during the debate elicited some criticism.
“I wish the CNN moderators did more fact-checking, letting the audience know when things are said that are flatly false,” wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. “Not sure how it helps for a platform to transmit falsehoods disguised as facts.”
Ahead of the event, CNN political director David Chalian said the network would limit fact checking from the stage, aiming to let the candidates grapple with the issues and “not become participants in that debate.”
Moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash took a deliberate approach to questioning, repeatedly following up when the candidates failed to answer questions and policing their allotted speaking time. At one point, Bash pressed Trump three times on whether he’d accept the outcome of the 2024 election.
“We are very proud of Jake and Dana,” a CNN spokesperson said. “Our job was to make sure candidates were heard so voters can make informed decisions and we are pleased we were able to do that.”
