The ratings for the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris went up in early numbers compared to four years ago.
The Wednesday night showdown in Salt Lake City, Utah, in fast national ratings drew in some 22.57 million viewers, across the four major broadcast networks, per the Hollywood Reporter in a piece published Thursday. (RELATED: ‘Sh*t Show’ — Fox News’ Chris Wallace Completely Loses Control Of Trump, Biden In First Debate)
TV ratings: #VPdebate rises vs. 2016 in early numbers https://t.co/mNJLdCD1gB pic.twitter.com/kXrjNVXsyS
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 8, 2020
That audience is about 6 percent larger than the comparable numbers from four years ago which had 21.37 million viewers tune in for the debate between then Republican vice presidential nominee Pence and Sen. Tim Kaine. (RELATED: Pence, Harris Both Deflect When Asked About How They’d Replace Their Historically Old Bosses If Necessary)
Over on the Spanish networks, Univision drew 955,000 with Telemundo coming in at 1.03 million, together the two drew just under 2 million for their coverage of the debate.
According to the report:
Cable news outlets and other channels will also add substantially to the total, making it a good bet that Wednesday’s debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic nominee Sen. Kamala Harris will pass the 35.6 million viewers for the 2016 vice presidential debate.
A report from The Wrap breaks down the early Nielsen Media Research data viewership from the debate on each of the four top broadcast networks under the night’s average on each network. ABC lead the night with 7.8 million viewers with NBC behind them with an average of 5.3 million.
Over on CBS the network had 4.3 million people tune in for the 2020 VP debate with Fox coming in fourth with an average of 3.9 million viewers. The total, in early numbers, was an average of 21.3 million people watched.
To put that into comparison, in 2016 those early numbers showed an average of 20.4 million total viewership, which makes an increase of 4 percent in total audience numbers.