More than 70 million people tuned in to watch the final debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Wednesday evening, leading CNN's Brian Stelter to deem the election the "highest-rated drama on TV." While the ratings didn't quite reach the same heights as they did for the first Clinton-Trump debate — 84 million — they did dwarf the final debates between Barack Obama and John McCain in 2008 (56 million) and Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012 (59 million).
"That defies all the trends in TV. We're all watching our own things nowadays, the audience is fracturing into lots of little pieces, but that's not the case with these debates," Stelter said.
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