President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden took the stage on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and the debate aired on broadcast networks, cable channels and a few streaming services. Nielsen estimates that 73.1 million people around the country tuned in to watch, a decrease of 13 percent from the 84 million who viewed the first presidential debate in 2016.
That number, however, is likely not completely accurate, because Nielsen included out-of-home viewers in this year’s numbers. This includes viewers in bars and restaurants (a number that was likely low due to COVID-19 restrictions), as well as views from some streaming services like Sling TV. However, there is no concrete, universal way to count streaming views, so we don’t really know how many people viewed the debate in that format. If we could fully count streaming viewers, it is likely that the overall viewership number would change. This issue also applies to tonight’s vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris.
