Third and Final Presidential Debate Draws 71.6 Million

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UPDATED: Fully 71.6 million people watched the third and final debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Oct. 19, the two presidential hopefuls facing off in Las Vegas. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace moderated the spirited salon, and Fox News Channel led the pack with 11.35 million total viewers, ahead of ABC’s 10.96 million, NBC’s 10.39 million, CBS’ 10.12 million and CNN’s 8.71 million.

Fox drew 6.62 million, MSNBC drew 5.51 million, Univision 2.38 million, Telemundo 1.48 million, Fox Business 714,000 and CNBC 559,000.

Among viewers 25-54, NBC led with 4.47 million, trailed by ABC’s 4.37 million, CBS’ 3.7 million, Fox News’ 3.5 million, CNN’s 3.46 million, Fox’s 3.13 million, MSNBC’s 1.8 million, Univision’s 1.19 million and Telemundo’s 739,000.

Some 84 million watched the first Clinton-Trump debate Sept. 26 and 66 million tuned in to the second one, which was up against Sunday Night Football.

Michael Malone
Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.