(Bloomberg) -- The debate between vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance drew a total audience of 43.1 million across 15 major TV networks, well below the 2020 contest’s ratings, according to results released by Nielsen.
The event Tuesday was hosted by Paramount Global’s CBS News, which led the coverage with nearly 9.6 million viewers. Fox News took first place among cable channels with more than 7.9 million, according to numbers from the network.
The 2020 debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence drew an audience of 57.9 million over 18 networks. This year’s matchup competed with a Major League Baseball Wild Card game on ESPN, which attracted about three million viewers.
Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, and Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, sparred over topics from immigration and climate change to abortion and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, but kept the evening largely civil. At times the pair agreed with each other and nodded at each other’s answers. Initial polls suggested there was no clear winner, although some pundits said Vance delivered a stronger overall performance.
This is expected to be the only debate between the two before the November election.
The Sept. 10 debate between Democratic presidential nominee Harris and Republican Donald Trump attracted a US TV audience of 67.1 million viewers, based on results from 17 networks. That beat the turnout for President Joe Biden’s ill-fated performance against Trump in June.
(Updates with new numbers in second paragraph.)
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