Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Final Presidential Debate: ABC Wins the Night with 9.5 Mil, NBC Follows with 8.9, CBS Third with 4.8

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The rough numbers are in for the networks on the final Presindetial debate.

ABC won the night with roughly 9.5 million viewers between 9 and 11 pm.

NBC, whose correspondent Kristen Welker moderated, followed with 8.9 million. CBS was third with 4.8 milliion.

Numbers for CNN, Fox News, and other cable outlets will come later today.

It’s interesting that NBC didn’t take the lions share considering it was their reporter who did such an excellent job of trying to maintain sanity.

CBS was the only one of the three broadcast networks that didn’t precede the debate with an hour long special. They aired the idiotic “Big Brother” at 8pm. I guess their rationale is that on Sunday they’ll get the audience with “60 Minutes.”

The good news is the debate on ABC and NBC from 9 to 10pm trounced NFL Football. So at least men were watching the debate. Maybe they finally understood that Trump lies like a rug.

 

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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