A combined 51.27 million total viewers watched the CNN Presidential Debate on television Friday, giving the news channel its highest-ever audience.
The debate, between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, has begun a debate among Democrats as to whether President Biden should remain in the Presidential race.
There were more than 30 million live starts of the debate on CNN’s digital platforms and on YouTube, and it was the biggest day for CNN on streaming service MAX, almost double the previous record.
The 24/7 livestream available to MAX subscribers in the United States, the CNN Presidential Debate was the second largest Live Event on MAX ever, behind only the March Madness Final.
The Debate was also the most watched non-sports programme of the year so far among both P2+ and P25-54 on television.
CNN ranked #1 across broadcast and cable TV networks with 9.53 million, ranking ahead of #2 Fox News 9.276 million and #3 ABC News 9.21 million (final data now including out of home numbers). CNN’s performance more than doubled MSNBC (4.122 million). The debate also attracted 3.379 million among 25-54, marking nearly a quarter of those viewers across all networks.
CNN had 2.5 million people live streaming the average minute of the debate (equivalent to the way TV ratings are calculated). This was the biggest digital average audience for a CNN event on record. TV plus digital streaming for CNN, CNNE, CNN MAX and HLN produced a combined total average audience of 12.3 million total viewers. Digital viewing added a +25% lift to CNN, CNNE and HLN TV total viewer average audience.
