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59.2 Million Tuned In To Monday's Debate, Smallest Of The Audiences

By Mark Memmott

Published October 23, 2012 at 6:34 PM EDT

Watch the wash or watch the debate? This woman was at a laundromat in Manhattan during Monday's debate.

An estimated 59.2 million people tuned in Monday night to watch President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in their third and final debate before the Nov. 6 election, The Nielsen Company reports.

That compares with 67.2 million viewers for the candidates' Oct. 3 faceoff and 65.6 for the debate on Oct. 16.

Nielsen notes that Monday's debate "was up against two sporting events — Monday Night Football on ESPN, which had 10.7 million people tuning in and Game 7 of [baseball's National League championship series] on FOX, which had 8.1 million people watching."

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott