Despite stiff competition, the presidential debate held on Monday night in Boca Raton, Florida, attracted a high number of viewers and even helped break some recent records for one particular network.
The National League Championship Series, which determined the team that would go on to represent the National League in the World Series this year, was broadcast on Monday night as well. What's more, this was the seventh game of the series, meaning it was an elimination match for both the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals -- so the stakes couldn't be higher. The Giants ended up prevailing and winning the pennant, and they did so without significantly taking viewership away from the debate.
Another winner for the evening was Fox News. Last week, the channel broke its own record for single viewers at once by attracting 11.1 million pairs of eyes during the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. However, last night saw Fox increase the size of its audience to 11.5 million, which is its new record, according to Variety. The station had even more viewers than the next two combined: CNN only had 5.8 million people watching, and MSNBC managed merely 4.1 million.