 So how many people actually watch the debate Thursday night? He's not equipped to be president. You're the sucker. You're the loser. Thursday night, CNN debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump drew a lot of eyeballs, 48 million viewers. And while it's a super strong number in this day and age of fractured TV watching, it was well below their last meetup in 2020 when 73 million people were watching. Most people watched on CNN channels, around 9 million, followed by Fox, then ABC. Since televised debates started in 1960, the average audience has been around 63.8 million viewers.