FOX News Media draws 10.4 million for simulcast of the CBS Vice Presidential Debate

FOX News Media’s simulcast of the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, drew a staggering 10.4 million total viewers across platforms to outdraw all competitors. 

During the debate from 9-10:45 p.m. ET, Fox News Channel averaged 7.7 million total viewers, FOX broadcast network averaged 2.4 million and FOX Business Network added another 255,000 total viewers to give FOX News Media a total average audience of 10.4 million. 

During the same time period, CBS averaged 9.1 million, ABC averaged 6.1 million, NBC averaged 5.4 million, MSNBC managed 4.6 million and CNN settled for 3.2 million. 

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Fox News Channel alone topped ABC, NBC and all cable options.

Fox News’ "FOX News Democracy 2024" pre-debate coverage with anchors Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Jesse Watters, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity from 8:20-9 p.m. ET was the highest-rated in all of television with 4.8 million viewers. 

Fox News’ special coverage of the debate from 8 p.m.–1 a.m. ET was cable news’ highest rated option with 5.2 million viewers and 1 million in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54. 

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"Jesse Watters Primetime" had an average audience of 4.6 million in viewers at 8 p.m. ET; a special episode of "Hannity" live from the spin room averaged 4.3 million viewers at 11 p.m. ET; and "FOX News @ Night" with Trace Gallagher averaged over 2 million viewers as Fox News programs swept cable news competitors across the board. 

FOX News Digital saw 1.8 million livestream views between 9-11 p.m. ET, and FOX News Go’s unique viewing devices were up 202% compared to the average weekday this year, while its media initiates were up 175% vs. the average weekday in 2024.

FOX News Media’s digital properties also had a strong day of engagement across key performance indicators, according to Adobe Analytics, YouTube Analytics, TikTok and Meta. FOX News Media properties were No. 1 in total social engagement among the news competitive set with 1.4 million social interactions across Facebook, X and Instagram, according to Emplifi.  

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Ratings statistics courtesy of early data from Nielsen Media Research.