Walz-Vance debate draws 43.1 million viewers, down from 2020 VP matchup

The lone 2024 vice presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz scored an average of 43.1 million TV viewers Tuesday, a steep decline from the comparable matchup that took place four years ago.
CBS News staged the debate between the running mates of former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, which was moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan. The telecast was shared with other major broadcast networks and cable news channels.
The total for the 15 networks measured by Nielsen was down 25% from the 57.9 million viewers who watched former President Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, face off against Vice President Biden’s running mate, Harris, in 2020.
The event from the CBS Broadcast Center on Manhattan’s West Side was ranked ninth out of the 12 vice presidential debates held since 1976. The average audience for the previous 11 was 46.7 million.
The largest audience for a vice presidential debate was 70 million in 2008 when Biden, then Barack Obama’s running mate, faced off against Sarah Palin, who ran on the Republican ticket with John McCain.
After the cacophony of the Trump years, the civility of the 2024 vice presidential debate evoked an earlier era of political discourse. The two candidates acknowledged when they agreed on aspects of policy and showed warmth to each other afterward on the stage.
Brennan and O’Donnell focused on issues and policy, generating substantive answers from both candidates with little trace of the insults or overheated hyperbole that have been frequent in presidential debates involving Trump.
The most unusual moment of the debate occurred when the moderators felt it was necessary to point out how the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were in the U.S. legally.
Vance had spread false stories on the campaign trail and on social media that Haitian immigrants were dining on the pets of Springfield residents. During the discussion on immigration, Vance repeatedly referred to the migrants as illegals.
When the moderators clarified the point, Vance said, “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check.”
CBS News stated at the outset that the moderators would not fact check the candidates in real time but would give them the opportunity to correct each other. However, the network news division said the moderators could clarify any remarks by the candidates.
Vance offered an explanation of the Temporary Protected Status program that brought the Haitians to the U.S., while Walz talked over him, leading the moderators to cut off their microphones. The campaigns were told ahead of time that CBS News had that option.
CBS had the largest audience of any network with 9.1 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen data. Fox News was second with 7.7 million, followed by ABC (6.1 million), NBC (5.4 million), MSNBC (4.6 million), CNN (3.2 million) and the Fox broadcast network (2.4 million).