VEEP Debate Attracts 38.8M Viewers

• FOX News’ Special Programming Outpaces NBC, ABC and Cable News During Debate Simulcast, Ranks Number One in all of Television for Surrounding Coverage

The Tuesday debate, which was hosted by CBS News, brought in 38.87 million viewers as it aired live from New York City beginning at 9 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen fast national ratings figures. This story will be updated when final Nielsen numbers are available.

For comparison, the Walz-Vance debate drew in a 32.9% smaller audience than the 2020 VP debate between current VP and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former VP Mike Pence, which scored a viewership of 57.9 million in October 2020, according to Nielsen.

FOX News Media’s simulcast of the CBS vice-presidential debate between Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance delivered 10.4 million viewers, outpacing linear television, digital and streaming last night, averaging 10,361,000 viewers and 2,354,000 in the A25-54 demographic on FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX Network, FOXNews.com and FOX Nation, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. FOX News Media’s simulcast of the debate also had the largest share of the event’s audience in television.

During the debate from 9-10:45 PM/ET, FNC topped broadcast networks ABC and NBC as well as all cable networks with 7.7 million viewers and 1.5 million in A25-54. FBN delivered 255,000 and 64,000 in A25-54 and FOX Network had an audience of 2.4 million viewers and 815,000 in the A25-54 demographic. FNC’s special FOX News Democracy 2024 pre-debate coverage with anchors Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Jesse Watters, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity from 8:20-9 PM/ET was the highest-rated in all of television with 4.8 million viewers and 863,000 in A25-54.

FNC’s special coverage of the debate from 8 PM – 1 AM/ET garnered cable news’ highest ratings with 5.2 million viewers and 1,004,000 in A25-54. At 8 PM/ET, Jesse Watters Primetime’s delivered an audience of 4.6 million in viewers and 814,000 in A25-54. Following the debate, Hannity’s live program from the spin room at 11 PM in New York was the most-watched in television with 4.3 million viewers and 833,000 in A25-54. At 12 AM/ET, FOX News @ Night with Trace Gallagher drew an audience of over two million viewers and 457,000 in A25-54, sweeping the cable news competition across the board.

FOX News Media’s digital properties, according to Adobe Analytics, YouTube Analytics, TikTok and Meta, delivered a strong day of engagement across key performance indicators. FOX News Digital saw 1.8 million livestream views between 9-11 PM/ET and FOX News Go’s unique viewing devices were up 202% compared to the average weekday this year and its media initiates were up 175% vs. the average weekday in 2024.

On social media, FOX News Media properties were number one in total social engagement among the news competitive set. The platforms garnered 1.4 million social interactions across Facebook, X and Instagram, according to Emplifi.

EARLY DATA FROM NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH

9-10:45PM/ET

• FOX News Media & FOX; 10,361,000 P2+, 2,354,000 A25-54.
• FNC: 7,689,000 P2+; 1,475,000 A25-54
• FBN: 255,000 P2+; 64,000 A25-54.
• FOX: 2,417,000 P2+; 815,000 A25-54.
• CNN: 3,183,000 P2+; 1,055,000 A25-54
• MSNBC: 4,647,000 P2+; 855,000 A25-54
• NBC: 5,443,000 P2+; 1,806,000 A25-54
• ABC: 6,099,000 P2+; 1,603,000 A25-54
• CBS: 9,141,000 P2+; 2,595,000 A25-54

9-11 PM/ET

• FNC: 7,620,510 P2+; 1,457,661 A25-54
• CNN: 3,179,681 P2+; 1,043,049 A25-54
• MSNBC: 4,655,224 P2+; 838,177 A25-54

7-11PM/ET

• FNC: 5,655,702 P2+; 1,027,408 A25-54
• CNN: 2,183,445 P2+; 664,861 A25-54
• MSNBC: 3,566,788 P2+; 575,052 A25-54

8-11PM/ET

• FNC: 6,617,906 P2+; 1,243,254 A25-54
• CNN: 2,618,846 P2+; 824,228 A25-54
• MSNBC: 4,085,302 P2+; 690,173 A25-54

8:15-9PM/ET

• FNC: 4,755,290 P2+; 863,352 A25-54
• CNN: 1,578,541 P2+; 412,820 A25-54
• MSNBC: 3,045,627 P2+; 413,584 A25-54