Is the Donald Trump “election product” still good business for the media? On Tuesday, the between the Republican candidate and Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris was watched across the Atlantic by around 42.3 million viewers on 18 TV channels, according to Nielsen data. This was down sharply on the 2020 election, which attracted 56.9 million prime-time viewers. In fact, the drop amounts to almost 26%. This is hardly a straw: a quarter of viewers vanished.

In detail, Fox News raced to the top of the ratings during prime time. The conservative channel, usually the leader on political events, attracted nearly 9.8 million viewers. It was ahead of ABC with 5.7 million. MSNBC, with 5.5 million viewers, overtook CNN for the first time…