Week of November 9, 2026 · Updated weekly
Who people follow, and who actually takes on opponents. Every week we score America's public debaters on nine measures: their audience, how central debating is to their work, how rigorous their debates are, who they have faced, how they did when the audience voted, and how recently they last debated.
How the ranking worksEvery profile shows its full score breakdown and sources.
Already met
People on this list who have debated each other in public.
Dartmouth Political Union · May 5, 2026
A formal campus debate with The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles on whether the president has kept to constitutional norms.
Source: DartmouthHosted by ZeroHedge, moderated by Mario Nawfal · September 2, 2026
Smith called the war against Iran the worst decision in modern American history; afterward he wrote that the debate was "disappointingly easy".
Source: Soap CentralMunk Debates, Toronto · May 20, 2026
John Mearsheimer argued for the motion with Stephen Walt. The pro side won the audience vote, swinging 1 percent.
Source: Munk Debates recordConversations with Coleman · October 2025
Three and a half hours on jihadism, the Iraq War, Israel and Palestine, and Iran's nuclear program.
Source: The Free PressOpen to Debate · July 11, 2025
Two Harvard figures debated President Trump's actions against the university, moderated by John Donvan.
Source: Open to DebateESPN First Take · March 2025
A decade after their last debate, Smith and Bayless met again on First Take. Smith later said he had never lost a debate to Bayless; Bayless has disputed his account of how the show was built.
Source: OutKickThe Daily Wire · October 2025
Knowles debated two liberals, Adam Mockler and Cecilia Rae, on The Daily Wire's Bar Fight.
Source: The Daily WireMunk Debates, Toronto · May 29, 2025
Ezra Klein argued against the motion with Ben Rhodes. The con side won the audience vote, swinging 1 percent.
Source: Munk Debates recordThe method
Nine parts, 100 points, measured fresh every week. Four fifths of every score is counted, not judged, and every profile shows its own breakdown with the evidence behind it.
Spot an error, a missing debate or someone who belongs here? Tell us. Every correction is checked against a source before it counts.
Readers of their English Wikipedia article over the last 28 days, and subscribers to the YouTube channel that carries their own show, each scaled against the leader so one enormous audience cannot flatten everyone else.
Those 28 days against the 28 before. Flat attention earns half the points, doubling earns all of them.
How central debating opponents is to what they do, on four levels set by SuperDebate’s editors and explained on every profile.
The number of sourced debates on their profile, up to five. Every debate links to the reporting it comes from.
Strength of schedule. Every notable opponent counts, and an opponent ranked here counts more the larger their own audience, so facing the leaders is worth most. A debate with no notable opponent, against a room or someone less known, still counts a little.
The rigor of their best three debates: a moderated formal debate, then a broadcast clash, then one against a room, then an argument on a stream.
Audience votes won, where a vote was taken and reported, as at the Munk Debates and the Soho Forum. No recorded vote earns half, so nobody loses points for debating where nobody votes.
How many different subjects they have debated, from politics and religion to science, economics and sports.
Full points for a sourced debate in the last year, falling to none at ten years.
Commentators, broadcasters, streamers, writers and scholars based in the United States who debate opponents in public, with at least one sourced debate. Current office holders and candidates are left out. Nobody in the scored ranking is affiliated with SuperDebate or has endorsed it. The competitive champion above the podium is chosen separately, for titles won in formal competition, and any tie to SuperDebate is stated beside their name. Anyone who drops out of the ranking keeps their page.
The people on this list argue in public for a living. At SuperDebate you get the same stage: one question, a clear structure, and a room that votes. It is how you learn to win an argument without making enemies.
