# What is the greatest live television broadcast of all time?

> Before streaming, a whole country could watch one thing at once. These are the nights it did.

*By YPB Team · Published August 23, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-greatest-live-television-broadcast-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Kennedy-Nixon Debate** — score 1000/1000
   The first televised presidential debate, in September 1960, which showed that appearance now carried weight.
2. **The 1969 Woodstock Festival** — score 954/1000
   Three days in upstate New York whose footage defined how a generation saw itself.
3. **The Fall of the Berlin Wall** — score 930/1000
   Crowds climbing and breaking the wall in November 1989, carried live as it happened.
4. **Our World** — score 818/1000
   The first live global satellite broadcast, in June 1967, on which the Beatles performed All You Need Is Love.
5. **The Red Bull Stratos Jump** — score 752/1000
   Felix Baumgartner's 2012 skydive from the stratosphere, streamed live to millions of simultaneous viewers.
6. **Nelson Mandela's Release** — score 520/1000
   Mandela walking free from Victor Verster Prison in February 1990 after 27 years, watched worldwide.
7. **The Rumble in the Jungle** — score 520/1000
   Ali against Foreman in Kinshasa in October 1974, beamed by satellite to closed-circuit screens worldwide.
8. **Live Aid** — score 382/1000
   Sixteen hours from London and Philadelphia in July 1985, carried to an estimated 1.5 billion people.
9. **The Wedding of Charles and Diana** — score 382/1000
   July 1981 at St Paul's, watched by an estimated 750 million people in 74 countries.
10. **The Return of Apollo 13** — score 382/1000
   The splashdown of a crew most viewers had been told might not survive the trip home.
11. **The 1966 World Cup Final** — score 212/1000
   England's win over West Germany at Wembley, and the commentary line the country still quotes.
12. **The Apollo 11 Moon Walk** — score 212/1000
   Broadcast live from the lunar surface on 20 July 1969 to an estimated 600 million viewers.

Tags: usa, 60s, tv shows, space