About 70 million people tuned in for the third and final presidential debate of the year.
The total audience was smaller than the first Trump-Clinton face-off on September 26, but bigger than the rematch on October 9.
Reflecting the intense interest in this election, Wednesday’s debate was significantly higher-rated than the final debates of the 2008 and 2012 cycles.
President Obama and Mitt Romney’s final debate in 2012 averaged 59 million viewers. Obama and John McCain’s final debate in 2008 averaged 56 million.
Nielsen will release an official total viewer number for Wednesday’s finale later in the day on Thursday.
Preliminary data for 11 of the channels that carried the debate showed about 69 million combined viewers. Ratings for PBS have not come in yet, and those will add to the total.
Some other channels, like C-SPAN, are not rated. Internet live streams are measured separately.
Clinton and Trump’s first debate averaged 84 million viewers via TV — setting a new TV record. The rematch averaged 66 million. The decline was partly due to competition from “Monday Night Football.”
On Wednesday night, there was no NFL competition, but there was a highly anticipated Cubs-Dodgers playoff game.
According to Facebook, there was slightly less online chatter about the debate this time around.
The company said that debate #1 saw 73.8 million “interactions” — meaning shares, comments and likes — by 18.6 million users. Debate #2 ticked up to 92.4 million “interactions” by 19.8 million users. But round three dipped to 79.9 million “interactions” by 17.8 million users.