The 2016 United States presidential debates were a series of debates held for the presidential election. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a bipartisan organization formed in 1987, organized three debates among the major presidential candidates. The first of these presidential debates took place on September 26, 2016, and set the record as the most-watched debate in American history, with 84 million viewers. The second debate took place on October 9, and the third took place on October 19. All CPD debates occurred from approximately 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. PDT). Only the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the Republican nominee Donald Trump met the criteria for inclusion in the debates, and thus were the only two to appear in the debates sponsored by t