The lone debate between the two major party candidates for vice president in 2024 drew a large audience, but not as large as four years ago.
Early Nielsen ratings for Tuesday's matchup between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and Republican candidate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, show 38.62 million viewers tuned in on the four big broadcast networks and the three major cable news networks (CNN, Fox News and MSNBC). Fox Business added another 255,000 viewers.
The final ratings, which will include many other networks, will likely put the total between 45 and 50 million viewers, in line with the historical average for vice presidential debates but well below the 57.92 million people who watched the debate of 2020 between incumbent Vice President Mike Pence and then Sen. Kamala Harris (who is leading the Democratic ticket this year).
Before Tuesday, the 11 vice presidential debates from 1976 to 2020 averaged about 46.5 million viewers (there were no vice presidential debates in 1980).
CBS News produced the debate, moderated by Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan, and the network had the largest audience of any individual channel with 9.14 million viewers. Fox News ranked second with 7.69 million viewers, followed by ABC (6.1 million), NBC (5.44 million), MSNBC (4.65 million), CNN (3.18 million) and the Fox television (2.42 million).
Previous vice presidential debates have ranged from a high of 69.9 million viewers in 2008 (Joe Biden and Sarah Palin) to a low of 26.6 million in 1996 (Al Gore and Jack Kemp). Since 1976, their average audiences have been about 25% smaller than those of presidential debates.
The two presidential debates this year averaged about 59.2 million viewers: 51.27 million for Biden and Donald Trump in June, before Biden ended his reelection campaign, and 67.14 million for Harris and Trump in September.