OS ANGELES - More than 28 million viewers saw Dick Cheney and Joseph I. Lieberman in their debate Thursday night.
ABC topped the six-network total measured by Nielsen Media Research, with 10.2 million people tuning in to watch the vice presidential contenders. CNN was the cable leader with 2 million viewers.
The 28.5 million audience for ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel was larger than that attracted by the 1996 debate between vice presidential candidates Jack Kemp and Al Gore.
The 26.6 million viewership figure for Kemp-Gore did not include Fox News Channel, then a fledgling, and MSNBC, which had just been launched in 1996. On Tuesday, an estimated 46.5 million people watched this year's first presidential debate between Gore and George W. Bush.
