120 million tuned in for presidential debate

ABC's research department indicates that around 120 million people watched all or some part of the presidential debate from Cleveland Tuesday night, Monitor TV critic Arthur Unger reports -- 30 million more than watched the final Ford-Carter debate in 1976. Basing its estimates on overnight Nielsen figures, ABC also estimates that the "homes using TV" figure, usually around 60 percent at this season, moved upt to near 70 percent. ABC's claim that it attracted the largest share of viewers (33 percent in New York to CBS's 28 percent and NBC's 19 percent) is probably indicative of national figures, since its lead-in to the debate was the season's premiere of its consistently top-10 series, "Three's Company."