Vice President Kamala Harris‘ first-ever sitdown with Fox News proved to be a ratings bonanza Wednesday, with 7.8 million tuning in, according to Nielsen data shared by the network.
The grilling by “Special Report” host and chief political anchor Bret Baier was the Democratic nominee’s third-highest-rated event of the 2024 campaign, trailing only her Sept. 10 debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump (67.1 million viewers) and her Aug. 22 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (28.9 million viewers).
Notably, the Fox News interview also drew a bigger audience than the first media availability Harris, 59, gave since becoming the Democratic nominee — an Aug. 29 gabfest with CNN’s Dana Bash that attracted 6.31 million viewers, per Nielsen Media Research.
The viewership for Wednesday’s showdown was 4.9 times Fox News Channel’s daytime average of 1,571,000 viewers for the third quarter of this year.
The 26-minute sparring match between Baier and Harris was less-watched than President Biden’s first interview since his disastrous June 27 debate with Trump, which drew 8.5 million viewers to ABC News on July 5.
However, it did outdraw Harris’ recent appearances on “60 Minutes” (5.7 million viewers); MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour” with Stephanie Rule (1.8 million); ABC News’ “The View” (3.1 million); and CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (2.9 million).
Fox News also drew 2.9 million viewers earlier Wednesday when it aired a town hall featuring Trump taking questions from female voters.
In the run-up to the interview, the vice president showed up 17 minutes late and her team whittled down the allotted time that she would give to the network that the campaign perceives as hostile, according to Baier.
During the interview, Baier, 54, grilled Harris on an array of issues, aggressively interjecting at times when he felt she was filibustering or giving canned lines.
Eventually, the host acknowledged on air that Harris’ staff was “wrapping me very hard here” and moved to conclude the interview.
Ahead of the interview, Fox News released a poll showing Trump leading Harris by two percentage points (50%-48%) among likely voters nationwide.
