Democratic presidential candidates U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (L) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton debate duringthe first official Democratic candidates debate of the 2016 presidential campaign in Las Vegas, Nevada October 13, 2015. Photograph by Lucy Nicholson — Reuters 

CNN’s broadcast set a record for Democratic debates, but it still fell short of the GOP’s ratings and wasn’t even the night’s most-watched show.

Hillary Clinton was widely declared the winner of Tuesday night’s debate, but in terms of ratings, the Democrats lost to the GOP … and NCIS.

Hosted by CNN  TWX -2.42% and Facebook  FB -0.18% , the first Democratic debate of the 2016 election season averaged 15.3 million total viewers, according to Nielsen’s numbers. That marked a new ratings record for Democratic debates, but it still fell well short of the GOP’s numbers.

The first GOP debate aired on Fox News  FOX -0.79%  in August and pulled in a record-breaking 24 million viewers. Last month’s follow-up on CNN pulled in roughly 23 million, which was a record for CNN.