Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) faced off on Tuesday night in front of 43.2 million viewers, a 25% drop in ratings from 2020’s vice presidential debate between then-Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence.
The 2020 vice presidential debate garnered close to 58 million viewers.
Tuesday’s simulcast debate between Vance and Walz was hosted by CBS News but was seen on numerous other major news networks.
CBS News was the most viewed news outlet with 9.6 million. Fox News Channel took second place in ratings with 7.9 million and was followed by ABC, NBC, and MSNBC.
The debate is the final scheduled debate of the 2024 election. Former President Donald Trump rejected another debate because it was “too late” in the campaign season as several states are already early voting.
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In comparison to the over 43 million for the vice presidential debate, the ABC News debate between Harris and Trump was watched by roughly 67 million in September and the Trump-Biden CNN debate in June was seen by over 51 million viewers.
The debate between Walz and Vance was widely assessed to be a strong performance by the Ohio senator, while the Minnesota governor was panned as not giving his best performance. However, The View’s Sunny Hostin called Walz “the clear winner” on Wednesday.