Harris v Trump re-energises Australia's live leaders debates
An average national audience of 973,000 watched the final leaders' debate across the Seven Network, with the audience of 60 undecided voters handing the prime minister a convincing victory.
Audiences have been significantly more engaged with the debates this election based on the viewing numbers across Seven, Nine, the ABC and Sky News Australia, which held one debate each. Nine is the owner of this masthead.
Nine's The Great Debate was the highest rating, with a national average audience of 1,097,000 and total reach of 2,128,000. Reach is a tally of the number of people who viewed the program for at least one minute on a metro or regional broadcast, or 15 seconds on a live-streaming platform.
The ABC's debate had an average audience of 1.01 million, and a reach of 1.77 million, while the national reach of Seven's debate on Sunday was 1.68 million.
Seven's debate audience was up 20 per cent compared with 2022, when Albanese faced off against incumbent Scott Morrison and Labor ultimately swept aside the Coalition after nine years in government. Nine lifted the audience of its debate by 15 per cent compared with 2022.
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Viewership figures were at their highest since 2013. Election debates have had waning audiences for some time, alongside long-term declines in live television viewership, as younger audiences in particular move towards social media and online consumption for news and entertainment.
The format was renergised by the second US presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in September 2024, with 67 million Americans, or about 20 per cent of the US population, watching. About 7 per cent of Australians turned on Nine's debate and 1.5 per cent watched Sky's broadcast on Foxtel or on regional television.
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