Welcome to the beat, I'm Ari Melber, and welcome to Debate Night in America.

Let's start with what we know. The data suggests more Americans will be watching

politics tonight than any other night this year. We can show you the stage already set in

Philadelphia where Trump and Harris face off for what is going to be their first

meeting ever. Yes, they're both in politics, a former president, a current vice president, but they've never actually been in the same room.

And they both face high stakes, as Nicole and I were just discussing, the last debate,

clearly had more pressure on Biden than Trump and then sparked weeks of

intrigue which led to the president's unprecedented exit from the race. These two

this time face a tight race. Trump and Harris are tied in current polling in the key states that could decide

the whole thing, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. Harris has been marching through weeks of

campaigning and often quite positive national coverage since she became the nominee in what happened in

politics coming out of that last debate. But again tonight is still different and

this is not just excitement even though we are excited we

admit it or news speaker nerd speak I'm gonna walk it through with you right

now tonight is actually on track to be Kamala Harris's largest live audience

ever the Democrats convention drew about the whopping 58 million live viewers.

Tonight's debate expected to surpass that

and surpass the Trump- Biden debate of the summer.

And maybe even surpass, according to some analysts, the 73 million people who came together and watched that 2020 debate,

which was a big one and high stakes and also of course during lockdown when more people were home all the time.

But let me tell you this, analysts are forecasting a TV audience tonight on par with the

largest cultural moments

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