Last Debate Widely Seen
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NEW YORK — Despite competition from baseball playoffs, the third and final presidential candidate debate drew 51.2 million viewers, making it the second-most-watched debate of this political season. Continuing this election season’s pattern of strong viewer interest in the debates, Wednesday’s audience was 36% larger than that for the final debate in 2000, which drew 37.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
ABC led Wednesday night with 14.5 million viewers, followed by NBC (13.3 million), CBS (10.7 million), Fox News Channel (6.9 million), CNN (3.7 million) and MSNBC (2.1 million). Nielsen’s audience estimate didn’t include viewers who watched on PBS, which said it had an audience of about 3.5 million. Audience estimates for C-SPAN weren’t available.
The first debate, held Sept. 30, drew 62.5 million viewers; the second debate, held last Friday, drew 46.7 million.
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