The CBS News Vice Presidential Debate drew a high amount of interest to broadcast network and cable television on Tuesday, according to preliminary ratings data released by Nielsen.
Unsurprisingly, CBS had the highest overall audience among the Big Four broadcast networks and cable news channels, with around 9.57 million people tuning in to the network, according to Nielsen. CBS owner Paramount Global ended its relationship with Nielsen earlier in the day, making its measurement data unavailable to them, though Nielsen still counted the network’s viewership.
As was the case with the first two presidential debates of the election cycle, CBS allowed other broadcast, cable networks and news outlets to simulcast the debate. Among those that simulcast the event, ABC scored the highest ratings with 6.35 million viewers, followed by NBC at 5.67 million and the Fox broadcast network at 2.48 million.
On cable, Fox News had the highest ratings among the competitive cable news set with 7.97 million viewers, followed by MSNBC at 4.88 million and CNN at 3.37 million, according to Nielsen.
Fox News Media — which produces the Fox network coverage and simulcast the debate on Fox News and Fox Business — saw a collective audience of around 10.67 million viewers, the Nielsen data showed.
The debate was the only scheduled event of its kind to involve Republican VP candidate Senator J. D. Vance and Democratic candidate Governor Tim Walz.
