Debate gets highest ratings in history

NEW YORK — The contentious first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lived up to its high ratings expectations, delivering the largest-ever TV audience for a presidential debate.

The audience for Monday’s matchup for the ad-supported broadcast and cable networks as well as PBS reached 84 million, according to Nielsen numbers. That figure reflects the average total number of people who watched the program throughout.

Monday’s face-off tops the previous record for a presidential debate set when 80.6 million viewers watched President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan clash on Oct. 28, 1980. It was their only meeting of that year’s presidential campaign, which occurred in an era when U.S. households had only a few channels to choose from.

The total across broadcast and cable networks measured by Nielsen does not include viewers who watched the debate through various video streams available online.