Harris and Trump on TV: Each Candidate’s Most Watched Appearances

by

As a seasoned political observer with a penchant for popcorn and a knack for predicting election results, I’ve seen my fair share of campaign spectacles over the years. But the 2024 race has been nothing short of mesmerizing, especially considering the performances of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

In approximately the next 36 to 96 hours, America will discover who its 47th president will be. The contest is tight between Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, and former Republican President Donald Trump. Both have been traveling extensively through crucial states in an attempt to sway undecided voters with their final appeals.

In essence, both Harris and Trump have mainly eschewed pre-planned television appearances over the last fortnight, focusing instead on live events. Despite this, TV news networks continue to air their speeches and rallies. Notably, Harris made an appearance on Saturday Night Live on Nov. 2, which prompted NBC to grant Trump equal coverage in two sports events the next day, as per FCC regulations.

Before that, both candidates engaged in multiple media interviews, town halls with voters, and one debate (an additional debate for vice presidential nominees Tim Walz and J.D. Vance). The media interviews didn’t quite match the debates in terms of impact, but some managed to draw significant viewer numbers. Here’s a summary of the most popular ones from the last two months of the campaign:

The following rating numbers are from the same-day tallies by Nielsen between August 26th and November 2nd. These figures represent initial broadcasts exclusively, allowing for the most accurate comparison. Please note that these events feature pre-arranged appearances, excluding news coverage of campaign events.

Debates

On the 10th of September, we’re referring to a debate between Trump and then-President Biden in June, which was viewed by 51.27 million people. This viewership number is on the lower end for debates. After Biden’s subpar performance, there were more calls for him to abandon his re-election bid, which he did in July. He later endorsed Harris to take the lead, and Democrats rallied behind her. The sole debate between Trump and Harris attracted 67.14 million viewers across 17 television networks, surpassing the typical average of 59.2 million for such broadcasts.

On October 1st, the two candidates vying for the vice presidency squared off in a debate on CBS News, which was broadcasted across 15 networks. This event attracted approximately 43.15 million viewers. While this is slightly less than the typical viewership for previous VP debates by around 7%, it’s also about 25% lower than the audience that tuned in to see Mike Pence and Kamala Harris in 2020.

Single Candidate Appearances

Here are the eight biggest interview and town hall appearances, ranked in descending order.

On October 16th, Special Report With Bret Baier (Harris): The vice president’s interview on Fox News with anchor Bret Baier attracted the highest number of viewers among any campaign interview following the Democratic National Convention. Over a span of thirty minutes, approximately 7.8 million people tuned in, making it more than double the usual viewership for Baiers’ entire show that night, which was 6.7 million.

In this instance, the first interview between CNN and Harris & Walz, conducted a week following the Democratic convention amidst speculation that Harris wasn’t doing enough media interviews, garnered an impressive viewership of 6.31 million people – marking CNN’s highest audience since their June debate production.

60 Minutes (featuring Harris), October 7th: The well-established CBS News program extended invitations to both Harris and Trump for interviews; however, Trump declined and later criticized how 60 Minutes edited Harris’ segment. The episode, which was broadcast on a Monday rather than the traditional Sunday time slot, attracted an average of 5.7 million viewers throughout the hour. Viewership increased slightly (to 5.97 million) during the first half when the vice president’s interview was aired.

Trump made his debut on Greg Gutfeld’s nighttime-in-spirit (yet officially primetime since it airs at 10 p.m. ET) Fox News program, attracting a record-breaking 4.89 million viewers, marking the largest audience the show has ever seen in its nine-year run.

On September 4th, the Republican nominee participated in a town hall event hosted by Sean Hannity on Fox News. This program attracted a record-breaking audience of 4.42 million viewers, outperforming all other town halls during the post-convention period.>

At CNN Town Hall (Featuring Harris), October 23: A total of 3.33 million viewers tuned in to watch the vice president’s discussion with Anderson Cooper from CNN, along with voters from Pennsylvania.

On October 8th, The View (Harris) and a town hall with Harris Faulkner on Fox News both went live during the morning hours, and each show attracted roughly 3.1 million viewers on average.

Read More

2024-11-05 03:27