An estimated 67.1 million people were in the TV audience for the presidential debate Tuesday between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, a sharp increase from the June debate that eventually led to President Joe Biden's exit from the race.
The debate was run by ABC News but shown on 17 networks, the Nielsen company said. The Trump-Biden debate in June was seen by 51.3 million people.
Tuesday's count was short of the record TV viewership for a presidential debate: 84 million people saw the first face-off between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. The first debate between Biden and Trump in 2020 reached 73.1 million people.
With Harris widely perceived to have outperformed Trump on Tuesday night, the former president and his supporters sharply criticized ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. The journalists performed some on-the-fly fact checks during the debate, correcting four statements by Trump.
While CNN chose not to correct any misstatements by the candidates during Trump's debate with Biden in June, ABC instead challenged statements that Trump made about abortion, immigration, the 2020 election and violent crime.
No other debates are scheduled between the two presidential candidates, although the Fox News Channel has publicly offered alternatives. CBS will host a vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance on October 1.
