Monday’s presidential debate set records as the most-watched presidential debate in American history.
The debate averaged 80.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen, across the 12 channels that carried it live.
That barely beats the previous record, 80.6 million viewers, set by the only debate in 1980 between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
For the 2016 debate, 80.9 million viewers translates to roughly one in four Americans. In 1980, 80.6 million viewers would have been more than one in three Americans.
No other debate comes within 10 million viewers of the new record. There have been 26 presidential debates from 1976 through Monday night.
The actual number of viewers is even higher than 80.9 million. Anyone who watched the debate in a group setting, like an office or debate-watching party, was not included. That number also does not include viewers online, PBS or C-SPAN.
More than 18 million people watched the debate on NBC, probably because “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lestor Holt was the moderator.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
