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37 Million Viewers Tune in to Kaine And Pence Vice Presidential Debate

1 minute read | October 2016

An estimated 37 million people tuned in to watch the vice presidential debate of the 2016 presidential election on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. The debate was hosted at Longwood University in Farmville, V.A., and featured Democratic V.P. Nominee Tim Kaine and Republican V.P. Nominee Mike Pence.

While coverage varied by network, nine aired live coverage from approximately 9:00 pm ET to 10:30 pm ET.

In terms of the social nature of the debate, there were 4.8 million Twitter Interactions from 640,000 people in the U.S. related to the “Vice Presidential Debate” on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, according to Nielsen. Those Tweeting about the debate sent 7.5 Tweets on average.

The chart below highlights the sum of the average audience for these networks during common coverage.

2016 Vice Presidential Debates

Sum of Networks Live + Same Day
  Oct. 4, 2016
  Rating Number of Viewers
All Households 23.5 27,605,000
Persons 2+ 12.2 37,160,000
Persons 18-34 4.9 3,422,000
Persons 35-54 12.6 10,050,000
Persons 55+ 25.1 22,234,000

2016 Networks Included:

ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, CNN, Fox Business Network, FNC and MSNBC

NOTE: Data above is inclusive of broadcast and cable networks, as well as PBS member stations. Common coverage of ad-supported networks only was 35.7 million viewers P2+.

2012 Vice Presidential Debates

Sum of Networks Live + Same Day    
  Oct. 11, 2012
  Rating Number of Viewers
Persons 2+ 17.7 51,419,000

2012 Networks Included:

ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, TEL, UNI, CNBC, CNN, Current TV, FNC and MSNBC

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