Fox News scores best ratings ever with final presidential debate

The third and final of this election season's presidential debates was good news for Fox News Channel. The conservative cable network drew an all-time high of 11.5 million viewers thanks to last night's Barack Obama/Mitt Romney showdown.

That tops the previous FNC record of 11.1 million viewers posted by both the second Obama/Romney debate on Oct. 16 and the 2008 VP debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

The FNC record is even more impressive considering early numbers indicating that Monday's debate was actually the least watched overall of the three presidential face-offs this year. That may be due in part to sports competition: the FOX broadcast network aired the final game in the National League Championship Series, while ESPN had Monday Night Football.

FNC's 9-10:30 p.m. debate coverage easily trounced cable rivals CNN (5.8 million) and MSNBC (4.06 million) combined.

Wonder how all those "fair and balanced" fans reacted to Obama's "horses and bayonets" quip?