Wednesday night’s third and final presidential debate pulled in the most viewers yet, and once again prompted jokes and quips from late-night TV hosts, with many airing live during the showdown.

On CBS’ Late Show, Stephen Colbert launched into an 11-minute monologue that starts off with his determination that three was the perfect number of debates between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, “because two is not quite enough,” but “four would make us go cannibal.”

Jimmy Kimmel also expressed relief about the debates being over.

“They never have to be in the same room again,” he said, (although they in fact were in the same room together the very next night at the Al Smith dinner in New York raising money for Catholic charities). “It’s like the last time we saw mom and dad fight before the divorce.”

Kimmel also weighed in on the format itself, reminding viewers of the rules: No cheering, no clapping, no booing and no answering actual questions, before airing a montage of Trump’s catchphrase of “wrong!” and other succinct interruptions.

Perhaps one of the best zingers came from Trevor Noah over on The Daily Show, following a clip of Clinton calling Trump the puppet of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and Trump responding with, “No, you’re the puppet.”

“To be fair, Trump thinks all women are puppets,” said Noah. “Which is why he’s always trying to stick his hand up them.”

And Noah took on Trump’s response that he would “keep you in suspense” when asked by Fox News moderator Chris Wallace if, win or lose, he would accept the results of the election.

“Trump’s basically going to run his campaign like an episode of Scandal — only with less black people and less women in power and a less realistic understanding of politics,” Noah said.

READ MORE: FastCoCreate, Chicago Tribune

Speaking of TV series, Trump also took to Facebook Live for a live news-style analysis of the debate, which many speculate preview of what his rumored ambition of a post-election TV network could look like.

Image: Variety
Image: Variety

The video appeared to be simulcasting the feed of Trump supporter Joe Seale’s YouTube channel Right Side Broadcasting, which has provided live coverage of Trump’s campaign events since July 2015.

The content included Trump advisors Boris Epshteyn and Cliff Sims as co-anchors, interviews with Trump’s adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault, a news crawl declaring Trump scored a “decisive victory” in the debate, and a live commentary segment from Tomi Lahren, host of political commentary show TheBlaze, which is considered a possible model for Trump TV.

“We’re quite tired of the mainstream media dictating the debate coverage,” Lahren said. “The media is Hillary’s largest SuperPac.”

The Facebook Live coverage drew upwards of 60,000 viewers, then grew to more than 8 million by Thursday morning.

READ MORE: Variety

Overall, the debate drew 71.5 million viewers across 12 networks—more than the 69 million viewers who tuned it to the second debate.

Fox News, home of debate moderator Chris Wallace, was the top network with an audience of 11.3 million, followed by ABC at 11 million viewers, NBC at 10.4 million, CBS at 10.1 million, Fox at 6.6 million. PBS also drew 2.7 million, Univision drew 2.4 million and Telemundo drew 1.5 million.

The third debate received a 39.7 overnight rating, compared to a rating of 37.2 from the second debate. The first debate drew a total audience of 84.4 million.

READ MORE: Hollywood Reporter

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Late Night Hosts React to Presidential Debate as Ratings Soar

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