June 27, 2024
Will tonight’s rematch debate between President Biden and former President Trump smash TV rating records? And what can we all expect?
Well – I don’t predict the future.
But I can tell you the last time these two debated in 2020 73.1 million viewers tuned in to the first debate and 63 million tuned into the second debate. That is really really high for a presidential debate and does *not* count online viewership. Those numbers only reflect TV viewers. But to put those numbers in context the highest rated TV show ever was this year’s Superbowl between the Chiefs and the 49ners where 123.7 million people tuned. There were only two other presidential debates with a higher TV rating. One was the September 2016 debate between then candidates Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton when 84 million live viewers tuned in. And the other was the debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s when 80.6 million people tuned in. All the indications are tonight’s debate may shatter trump and Biden’s 2020 rating record. But of course – we’ll have to wait till tomorrow to know that.
Now – to what we can all expect. Things are going to feel and look different tonight than the last time these two men were in the same room. Both the Trump and the Biden campaigns agreed to muted mics and no studio audience.
I want to talk about why these two things go hand and hand are going to be a big deal for Trump and Biden. In the last 10 to 15 years – aggressively interrupting your opponent on stage during a political debate has become the norm and usually riles up the in-studio audience. That’s how we get a lot of those viral moments. But that wasn’t always the case. Yes of course there were interruptions in past debates but generally there was a respect for each candidate’s time. And the candidates followed the timing instructions of the moderator. Now – while the aggressive interruptions sometimes make for good TV and can be entertaining to the studio audience– they can also be a nightmare for voters who are watching and trying to understand the policy proposals of the candidate running for office. They can also be a nightmare for the moderators who are trying to keep everything on track and address all the important topics. Interruptions take time and when we’re talking about TV– the show has to end at a specific time whether the topics are covered or not.
So tonight – when each candidate’s time is up. His mic will automatically be cut off. Even if he keep talking, you’ll see his lips moving – but the at home tv audience won’t be able to clearly hear him. Now – the other candidate on stage will be able to hear him because the two are only standing a few feet apart. We’ll have to see whether that trips up the candidates.
The debate starts at 9 p.m. eastern. You can watch it on CNN or MAX. Or you can stream it for free on cnn.com if you don’t have a cable log in
