The First Presidential Debate of 2016 Sets a Ratings Record

84 million is now the number to beat.

While it didn’t hit the 100 million viewer mark that some thought could be within its reach, Monday night’s first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump reached 84 million viewers across 13 networks, according to Nielsen. That figure topped the lone presidential debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980, which averaged 80.6 million viewers.

The network that came out on top was moderator Lester Holt‘s own, NBC, with 18.156 million viewers. Among the other broadcast networks, ABC had 13.521

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