 And that's among the most highly watched debates. The Trump-Hillary-Clinton debate in 2016 was the highest rated ever. With so much audience splintering, presidential debates are among the few events that still draw a large audience. It's likely the only audience larger for a single event will have been this year's Super Bowl. Whether the debate changes a lot of minds is a different story, but it could change the trajectory of this campaign in a race that's widely expected to be one of the tightest ever.