Fox News was the winner of last night’s third and final Presidential debate between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, drawing more viewers than all other cable and broadcast networks. The network's Chris Wallace moderated, earning critical praise.
Nielsen said Thursday afternoon that the estimated total number of viewers was 71.6 million after PBS's viewers were added into the earlier reported 68.8 million. There were 53.2 million social media interactions across Facebook and Twitter from 16.9 million people in the U.S. related to the "Presidential Debate," Nielsen also said.
Fox News averaged 11.2 million viewers for its live coverage of the debate from Las Vegas, up 14% from its tally for the second debate. Fox News bested CNN’s 8.6 million and MSNBC’s 5.5 million viewer take for the debate period, according to Nielsen.
The cable news network also topped the 10 million viewers ABC, NBC and CBS drew for their respective live debate coverage.
Presidential Debate Viewers Among Cable Networks
Total Viewers
NetworksDebate #3 (Oct. 19)Debate #2 (Oct. 9)Debate #1 (Sept. 26)
Fox News 11.2 million 9.9 million 11.4 million
CNN 8.6 million 11.3 million 9.9 million
MSNBC 5.5 million 5.5 million 4.9 million
Fox Business 714,000 565,000 672,000
CNBC 547,000 395,000 520,000
Source: Nielsen
