The second match between John McCain and Barack Obama is among the most watched television events of all times. More than 63 million people tuned in to watch the debate on Tuesday, an important increase over the 52.4 million who watched their first forum September 26, Nielsen Media Research said on Wednesday. The figure represents the collective audience for 11 networks.

Nielsen established these figures for Wednesday’s debate on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC-America, CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. Ratings for individual networks were not released by Nielsen, but ABC appeared to draw the largest audience with about 13.2 million. NBC placed second with its coverage of the 90-minute forum, garnering 10.86 million viewers, while CBS had 9.44 million.

However the audience was still smaller than the nearly 70 million people who tuned in for last week's debate between Republican Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

Moreover it is the second most-watched political debate ever, behind the 80.6 million people who watched the 1980 Carter-Reagan debate.

The Oct. 7 forum, moderated by NBC News Tom Brokaw at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., outpaced the first
McCain-Obama meeting on Sept. 26, which drew 52.4 million, by nearly 21%.

Tuesday night's debate was the second of three meetings between McCain and Obama. The final forum will be about domestic and economic policy and will take place at the Hofstra University on Oct. 15.

The showdown between Palin and Biden reminded us all of the match-up between then-president George H.W. Bush, Democrat Bill Clinton and independent Ross Perot.