Stephanopoulos interview with Biden scores 8.5 million viewers Friday night

President Joe Biden’s first post-debate interview earned a sizable audience Friday night as 8.5 million people saw at least part of his 22-minute conversation with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos.

The network won the 8 p.m. time slot. CBS’s Lingo came in second, with 2.1 million viewers, and Fox’s WWE SmackDown was third, with 2 million watching. The interview also scored the best viewership for an ABC News program unrelated to either elections or debates since the network’s 2018 interview with former FBI Director James Comey, which scored 9.8 million viewers on a Sunday night.

Biden’s interview was also the most watched program on Friday among the key groups of people ages 18-49 and 25-54. For the former age group, 0.58 million viewers watched the interview, while the latter age group saw 0.91 million viewers tune in.

ABC News has also uploaded Biden’s interview onto YouTube. As of Monday morning, the stream has more than 2.8 million views, while a separate upload of the interview on Saturday has almost 1.4 million views.

Beforehand, the White House underscored the interview as Biden’s first televised interview since the debate, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stating the president was looking forward to “talking directly to the American people.” The Biden administration has been adamant that the president is fully able to continue his job in the White House in an attempt to quell concerns about Biden after his underperformance at the June 27 debate.

During Biden’s interview, the president declined to commit to undertaking an independent cognitive test, arguing that he does “a cognitive test every single day” with his job. While he acknowledged he can no longer “run the 100 in 10 flat,” he contended he is in “good shape” and dared Stephanopoulos to “come keep my schedule.”

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On Sunday, Biden’s campaign denied any possibility of the president stepping aside in the 2024 presidential election, arguing that he is committed to beating former President Donald Trump in a likely rematch. The campaign also just announced a $50 million ad buy, with some of these ads playing during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Washington Examiner has contacted ABC News for comment.