The long-awaited debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was watched by at least 57.5 million viewers, according to preliminary figures from ABC.
ABC's audience estimation revealed that the improvement is significant compared to the debate between President Joe Biden and Trump at the end of June, which garnered 51.3 million viewers, according to media analysis company Nielsen.
Heated debate
Preliminary data covers the audience of seven networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. ABC said it will release the final figures, including the estimated streaming audience, in the coming days.
Nielsen reported that over 6.4 million viewers were between 18 and 34 years old, and another 16.8 million were between 35 and 54. However, viewers over 55 years of age were over 41.3 million.
The data does not include the number of people who followed the debate through social media, news websites, or streaming.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump
The first debate between the presidential candidates took place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and was moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis from ABC News, but they received harsh criticism from Republicans for fact-checking Trump's false claims.
Although Harris received praise for constantly attacking Trump on issues such as abortion and national security, there is still a long way to go.
Trump, on the other hand, was full of conspiracy theories, causing concern among his Republican allies.