The first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump drew an audience of nearly 48 million viewers — making it the highest-ever rated program in CNN’s history.
According to early Nielsen figures, approximately 47.9 million viewers tuned in to the debate on Thursday night — during which Biden, 81, turned in a disastrous performance that highlighted his advanced age and frailty, raising questions about his ability to withstand the stress of handling the presidency for another term.
Despite the strong rating, the viewership for the event, which aired on CNN and was simulcast across 22 networks, was still 34% less than the size of the audience that watched the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump four years ago that was moderated by Chris Wallace on Fox News, according to Variety.
That October 2020 debate drew a total audience of 73.1 million viewers. The second Trump-Biden face-off a few weeks later saw 63 million people tune in nationally, according to Nielsen figures.
The most watched presidential debate in history took place four years prior to that in 2016 between Trump, who at the time was a longshot Republican candidate, and the presumptive favorite, Hillary Clinton.
The first Clinton-Trump debate was viewed by an all-time record high of 84 million people. The two subsequent debates between the two candidates fell from there — 66.5 million in the second meeting and 71.6 million in the third debate.
The Nielsen figures for Thursday night’s debate show that an estimated 9 million people tuned in to CNN’s main channel, CNN Español and HLN.
Fox News, which simulcast the debate, drew around 8.8 million viewers while ABC News generated an audience of 8.7 million people.
MSNBC, the Comcast-owned left-leaning rival to CNN, managed 3.968 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
The lower viewership for Thursday’s event could be partly explained by the various streaming options.
CNN’s digital properties and YouTube recorded 30 million total views, according to the Warner Bros. Discover-owned network.
A CNN spokesperson told The Post that the debate was the “most watched non-sports program of the year so far among both” total viewers and those in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic.
The debate, which was held at CNN studios in Atlanta, was moderated by network hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
NEWS CREDIT
