ABC says 14 million viewers watched the third Democratic presidential debate

Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – ABC says that 14 million viewers watched the third Democratic debate in Houston, Texas, according to the debate's total viewership across ABC and Univision.

About 12.9 million viewers watched the debate on ABC, and 1.1 million on Univision.

ABC says that the debate was the most-watched non-sports program of the night.

It also drew a large number of viewers online.

The network noted in a release that ABC's coverage online "drew 2.9 million unique visitors and 11 million video views," and Univision's livestream on Facebook "reached over 21 million users and generated more than 5 million video views."

The ratings mean Thursday night's debate was the second most-watched of this year's Democratic debates. The first debate in Miami, Fla., which had been hosted by NBC and MSNBC and drew about 15.3 million viewers. The second debate in Detroit, Mich., which had been hosted by CNN, drew about 8.7 million viewers.

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On Friday, the Democratic National Committee announced that the fourth Democratic debate would be held on Oct. 15 in Westerville, Ohio, and co-hosted by The New York Times and CNN.

Candidates will qualify for that debate with the same polling and donation requirements as this month's debate. Candidates must hit at least 2% in four qualifying national or early state polls and secure at least 130,000 individual donors, including 400 donors each from at least 20 states.

At least 11 candidates have already qualified for the October debate:

  • Former Vice President Joe Biden

  • Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey

  • South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg

  • Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro

  • Sen. Kamala Harris of California

  • Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota

  • Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas

  • Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont

  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

  • Andrew Yang, entrepreneur

  • Tom Steyer, businessman

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How many viewers watched the third Democratic presidential debate?