The debate between Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Republican US Senator JD Vance of Ohio saw a sharp drop in viewership compared to the 2020 vice presidential debate.

Viewing figures published by Nielsen on Wednesday showed that 43.1 million people watched the Tuesday evening event. In 2020, 57.9 million people witnessed the confrontation between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, then a US senator, and Republican Vice President Mike Pence.

Although the Walz-Vance debate, known as a relatively civil affair, was watched by nearly 25 percent fewer people than its predecessor, the Harris-Pence debate was also the second most-watched VP debate since Nielsen began keeping records.

The most-watched debate among presidential running mates was the 2008 clash between Democratic President Joe Biden, then a long-serving senator, and then-Republican Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, which drew 69.9 million viewers.

Viewing figures for Tuesday’s debate were comparable to those of the 2004 vice presidential debate between then-Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, which was watched by 43.6 million people.

Both presidential debates this year attracted far more viewers than the Walz-Vance debate. The September 10 on-screen matchup between Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump was watched by 67.1 million people, while the June 27 Trump-Biden debate drew 51.2 million viewers.

Newsweek Received email comments on the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz campaigns on Wednesday evening.

Tuesday’s debate was likely the last debate between candidates on the major party’s presidential ticket this year, with Trump having repeatedly declined to participate in future debates with Harris.

While polls showed a clear majority of Americans thought Harris won her debate with Trump, polls on the winner of the vice presidential debate were less clear.

A CNN/SSRS flash poll found that 51 percent of debate viewers thought Vance won the night, while 49 percent favored Walz. Both candidates significantly improved their favorability scores after the debate.

A similar CBS News/YouGov poll also found Vance was considered the winner by a very narrow margin: 42 percent to 41 percent, while 17 percent of respondents said the debate was a tie.

Debate viewers were evenly divided in a Politico poll, with Walz and Vance each considered the winner by 50 percent of respondents.

But Walz won among independent voters in the Politico poll by a margin of 58 percent to 42 percent, and he got a bigger boost from his favorable rating in the CNN poll.

Christopher Devine, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton, previously predicted that the Walz-Vance debate would not be decisively “won” by either candidate. Newsweek.

“It’s hard to really ‘win’ a debate these days because the electorate is so polarized and eager to believe that their party’s candidate has gained the upper hand over the other party,” Devine said. “This debate will likely be a tie, with Republicans believing Vance won and Democrats believing Walz won.”

“People in the middle might prefer one or the other, but there aren’t enough to give either candidate a decisive victory if the partisans back their man,” he added.