the final debate matchup wednesday night between hillary clinton and donald trump brought in 71.6 million viewers, beating the second contest in the ratings but failing to top the record-setting first debate, according to nielsen. the first clash brought in 84 million viewers , the most ever for a presidential debate, while 66.5 million tuned in for the second . both of those events went head-to-head with national football league games, while wednesday<u+2019>s debate at the university of nevada, las vegas did not. fox news, whose host chris wallace moderated the debate, beat out both the broadcast and cable competition with about 11.3 million viewers. about 8.7 million people tuned in on cnn while 5.5 million watched on msnbc. among the broadcasters, abc won with nearly 11 million viewers, while nbc brought in 10.4 million, cbs had 10.1 million viewers and 6.6 million watched on fox. nbc beat the broadcasters comfortably in the first debate, but aired <u+201c>sunday night football<u+201d> the night of the second contest. during the 90-minute debate, which got off to a sedate start before turning more combative , mrs. clinton and mr. trump argued over issues ranging from the supreme court to abortion to immigration. mr. trump refused to say whether he would honor the results of the election, saying that he will <u+201c>tell you at the time.<u+201d> mr. wallace was credited with pressing the candidates on the issues . ratings for the third debate in 2012 brought in 59.2 million viewers. like the prior debates, viewers could also live stream the contest on platforms like twitter , facebook and youtube, viewership that is not counted by traditional nielsen ratings. write to steven perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com
third debate grows in ratings, fails to top first contest - wsj
steven perlberg