**PLEASE NOTE: The following ratings information is based on Nielsen's National Ratings, which were released at approximately 4PM this afternoon and are accurate. Earlier media reports were based on Fast Affiliate ratings information, which for a live event airing nationwide are typically unreliable.

MORE AMERICANS TURNED TO ABC NEWS FOR COVERAGE AND ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE THAN ANY OTHER OUTLET

11.252 Million Viewers Watched the First Presidential Debate on the ABC Television Network

8.865 Million Americans Turned to Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulos And the ABC News Powerhouse Political Team for Post-Debate Analysis

"Vote 2012: Presidential Debate-Wed" (9:00-10:32 p.m.)

On its first night of debate coverage, ABC News' "Your Voice, Your Vote - 2012 Presidential Debate" drew an average audience of 11.3 million viewers, qualifying as Wednesday's #1 program among Total Viewers. Airing from 9:00-10:32 p.m., ABC News delivered the most-watched coverage of the debate, outdrawing CBS by 7% (10.6 million) and NBC by 2% (11.1 million).

· ABC's debate coverage was up over the network's coverage of the first Presidential debate four years ago by 2% in Total Viewers (11.0 million on 9/26/08).

"Vote 2012: Analysis-Wed-10/3" (10:32-11:00 p.m.)

ABC News' analysis of the 2012 Presidential Debate on Wednesday night ranked as the #1 post-debate analysis in Total Viewers (8.9 million), topping NBC's coverage by 2% (8.7 million) and CBS' coverage by 27% (7.0 million).

· ABC's analysis of the 2012 Presidential debate grew by 7% in Total Viewers from the Net's analysis on the comparable night four years ago (8.3 million on 9/26/08).

· The ABC News debate analysis delivered the Network's best performance in the half-hour in nearly 1 year in Total Viewers - since 11/9/11.

Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos anchored ABC's special coverage of the first Presidential debate in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, October 3. To give viewers the whole picture on how each candidate performed and what impact it could have on the campaign going forward, Sawyer and Stephanopoulos were joined by members of ABC's powerhouse political team including - Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper, "ABC World News" Weekend Anchor David Muir, Senior Political Correspondent Jonathan Karl - who reported from ABC's Fact or Fiction Desk -- as well as ABC News Political Contributors George Will, Matthew Dowd, Nicolle Wallace, Donna Brazile and Austan Goolsbee.

Marc Burstein is the senior executive producer of ABC News Special Events.

FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RATINGS (October 3 - 9:00-10:32pm)

Total Viewers Adults 25-54
ABC 11,252,000 3.92; 4,651,000
NBC 11,069,000 4.34; 5,156,000
CBS 10,576,000 3.80; 4,507,000

ANALYSIS OF FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE RATINGS (10:32-11:00pm)

Total Viewers Adults 25-54
ABC 8,865,000 2.97; 3,527,000
NBC 8,719,000 3.29; 3,899,000
CBS 7,010,000 2.48; 2,945,000