Washington- Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz confronted this week in the only vice presidential debate of the cycle, where the two argued over policy — while remaining notably cordial.
Voters overwhelmingly described the debate as having a positive tone, according to a CBS News Poll carried out immediately after the match.
The debatecame after last-minute changes to the Democratic ticket that upended the race, is also expected to be the last of the cycle, after President Trump declined to participate in a second match against Vice President Kamala Harris before Election Day on November 5.
How many people watched the VP 2024 debate?
An estimated 43.15 million viewers tuned in to the vice presidential debate on CBS News this year, according to Nielsen, a media analytics company.
The debate took place at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York and was broadcast on more than a dozen stations.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
How many people watched the VP 2020 debate?
The 2020 vice presidential debate was watched by an estimated 57.9 million people, according to Nielsen. The debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former Vice President Mike Pence was hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
How do the ratings compare to the audience for the previous VP debate?
Although the 2024 debate fell short of the viewership garnered in 2020, it was up from 2016. That year, the vice presidential debate between Pence and Sen. Tim Kaine, Pence’s running mate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, attracted 37 million viewers. And in 2012, the debate between President Biden, then President Barack Obama’s vice president, and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan, Senator Mitt Romney’s running mate, attracted 51.4 million viewers.
Both years are down from the 2008 debate between Mr. Biden and Sarah Palin, then the governor of Alaska, when nearly 70 million people watched the game, which attracted more viewers than any presidential debate dating back to 1992.
