Watch the wash or watch the debate? This woman was at a laundromat in Manhattan during Monday's debate.

There were 67.2 million viewers for the candidates' Oct. 3 faceoff and 65.6 for the debate on Oct. 16. One reason for the decline on Monday: Major League Baseball and the National Football League were also on the air Monday night.

An estimated 59.2 million people tuned in Monday night to watch President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in their third and final debate before the Nov. 6 election, The Nielsen Company reports.

That compares with 67.2 million viewers for the candidates' Oct. 3 faceoff and 65.6 for the debate on Oct. 16.

Nielsen notes that Monday's debate "was up against two sporting events — Monday Night Football on ESPN, which had 10.7 million people tuning in and Game 7 of [baseball's National League championship series] on FOX, which had 8.1 million people watching."

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Filed in:

• Presidential Race
• Election 2012
• Politics
• Home Page Top Stories
• News