The 2020 presidential debates are the last hurrah for live TV events

When Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off in the first of three US presidential debates tonight, it will likely draw a television audience of near 100 million viewers. That could be the last time a live TV event—other than the Super Bowl—attracts so many eyeballs at once.

Due to the acceleration of cord-cutting, and the unique importance of the 2020 US presidential election, there is no guarantee debates in future years—or any non-sporting event—will be able to generate such a significant viewership on linear TV. Since the 1970s, the debates have typically brought in between 50 and 70 million US viewers across all networks. The first 2016 debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton drew a record 84 million live viewers, beating the record set by the 1980 debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.

Through the 1980s, the debates aired only on ABC, CBS, and NBC. In the 1990s they added Fox and CNN to the mix, and in the 2000s they added some cable news channels, including Fox News and MSNBC. Today, the debates are aired on all of these networks, plus PBS, CSPAN, Spanish-language channels like Telemundo and Univision, and more. Other than perhaps the State of the Union address, no live event is broadcast on as many US networks simultaneously than a presidential debate.

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