InPew Research Center surveys conductedsince 1988, three-fifths or more of voters say the debates were very or somewhat helpful in deciding which candidate to vote for. The high point was 1992, when 70% of voters said the three-way debates that year between Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ross Perot were at least somewhat helpful.
The first televised VP debate between Senator Walter Mondale (D) and Senator Robert Dole (R) in 1976
Candidates: US Senator and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence
Debates, however, are not the determining factor for most voters. In 2016 only 10% of voters said they had definitively made up their minds “during or just after” the presidential debates. By comparison, 11% said they’d made up their minds in the days or weeks on or just before Election Day, 22% during or just after the party conventions, and 42% before the conventions.
The October 2, 1980 debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan drew 80 million viewers out of a population of 226 million
2020 Second Presidential Debate
Date: October 15, 2020, Thursday
Time: 9:00pm – 10:30pm ET
Location: Miami, Florida
Host: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Moderator: Steve Scully, Senior Executive Producer
and Political Editor at the C-SPAN Networks
Candidates: Former Vice President and Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump
Regardless of their impact on the outcome of elections, debates attract more viewers than any other televised event outside of the Super Bowl.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the first 2016 debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump drew a record
84 million television viewers, but that figure does not include online streaming or CSPAN viewers.
First Trump-Clinton debate is the most-watched of all time with 84 million viewers, not including online streaming (ABC)
2020 Third Presidential Debate Date: October 22, 2020, Thursday
Time: 9:00pm – 10:30pm ET
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Host: Belmont University
Moderator: Kristen Welker, Co-Anchor of NBC’s “Weekend TODAY” and an NBC News White House correspondent
Candidates: Former Vice President and Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump
This viewership for the final night of the 2020 political conventions, including broadcast and cable networks, was under 25 million, with 23.81 million watchers for the GOP and 24.60 million turning on the tube for Democrats.
Although a drop from 2016, the numbers are an unlikely gauge of voter interest in seeing the first head-to-head historic matchup between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on September 29th.
