A total of 67.2 million people watched the first presidential debate between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney on Wednesday night, according to ratings company Nielsen on Thursday.

The number is much higher than that during the spar between the then-Senator Obama and his Republican rival, Senator John McCain, in 2008. The audience tallied 52.4 million.

It was ABC News which won the night. It boasted an audience of more than 10.4 million, during the 9-10:30 p.m., the time frame when the first of three debates was televised from the University of Denver in Colorado.

Among cable news networks, CNN enjoyed an audience of over 6 million and MSNBC had 4.7 million.

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