Monday night’s presidential debate pulled in 59 million viewers — the least-watched of the three verbal sparring matches between President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney.
That was down from the 67 million who watched the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, and from the second debate on Oct. 16, which drew 66 million viewers.
NBC led the broadcast pack with 12.4 million viewers from 9 to 10:30 p.m., followed by ABC (11.7 million).
Fox News Channel was the big cable news winner, snaring 11.5 million viewers — the biggest audience in its 16-year history and over 3 million more viewers than CBS (8.4 million).
CNN finished with 5.8 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (4.1 million viewers).
By comparison, the third and final presidential debate in 2008 averaged 57 million viewers.
Meanwhile, Monday’s “Monday Night Football” game on ESPN pulled in 10.7 million viewers, while Game 7 of the NLCS on Fox — which send the San Francisco Giants to the World Series — averaged 8.1 million viewers.