Tonight’s Presidential Debate Expected to Be Most-Watched in TV History: Here's How to Watch

Tonight’s presidential debate is expected to be the most-watched debate ever—here’s how to catch it.

Donald Trump Hillary Clinton
Image via WikiCommons
Donald Trump Hillary Clinton

Monday night, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will square off in what's expected to be the most-watched presidential debate ever. Tonight's 90-minute debate at Hofstra University in New York could bring in more than 100 million viewers—possibly attracting about as many viewers as the Super Bowl does.

This will be the first debate between the first female presidential candidate in history and the real estate mogul/reality TV star; they'll debate again on Oct. 9 and Oct. 19.

According to Nielsen, which measures how many households (rather than individuals) have watched the debates, tonight's debate could be the most-watched debate since the first televised debate during the 1960 election. For decades, the most-watched debate was between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980, until it was surpassed by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's first debate in 2012, when 46 million households tuned in. All in all, six of the top ten debates occurred in the last three elections, and Obama appeared in five of those.

Image via Nielsen

Tonight, Lester Holt of NBC News will be moderating, though (controversially) not fact-checking, the 90-minute commercial-free debate. It starts at 9 p.m. ET and will end around 10:30 p.m.

If you have a TV, you can watch the debate on all the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Univision, PBS, etc.) and all of the cable news networks (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, etc.). 

But even without a TV, there are multiple ways to watch. Facebook Live will be streaming it. The debate will be streamed on YouTube byNBC News, Washington Post, and Bloomberg Politics, among others. Twitter has you covered too.

If you're into virtual reality, AltspaceVR offers that if you have a Samsung Gear VR or Oculus Rift.

If you're painfully old school, you can also listen to the debate on NPR

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