Vice presidential debate draws more than 50 million TV viewers, a major spike over 2016

The vice presidential debate drew more than 50.7 million viewers on Wednesday, a significant jump over the last meeting of running mates in 2016.

Preliminary Nielsen data showed the total audience across the major broadcast and cable networks for the showdown between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris of California did not approach the previous record of 69.6 million viewers who watched Sarah Palin face off against Joe Biden in 2008.

But the early figure is 36% higher than Pence’s appearance on the debate stage in 2016, when 37.2 million viewers watched him tangle with Democratic challenger Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

The debate was moderated by USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The debate will finish in the top three most-watched vice presidential debates — all of which have included the three female candidates who have been nominated for the office. The vice presidential candidates have met in each campaign cycle since 1976 with the exception of 1980.

In 1984, 56.7 million viewers watched Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first female on a national ticket, face off against Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush.

The Pence-Harris showdown was far more civil than the first presidential debate between the candidates at the top of the ticket, President Trump and Biden, the former vice president.

A bizarre highlight was the landing of a fly on Pence’s silvery coif. It remained there for two minutes as the vice president spoke and the moment became the social media topic of the night.

Cable’s Fox News had the most viewers, with 11.5 million, followed by ABC (9.4 million), CNN (7.4 million), MSNBC (6.7 million), NBC (6.5 million), CBS (5.2 million) and the Fox broadcast network (4.1 million).

The first presidential debate, held on Sept. 29, was watched by 73 million viewers. Trump and Biden were scheduled to meet again on Oct. 15.

Those plans are up in the air as Trump said in a Fox Business Network interview on Thursday that he would not participate after the Commission of Presidential Debates announced the event would be held virtually due to the president’s coronavirus diagnosis.