Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton beat Republican rival Donald Trump 52 per cent to 39 per cent in Wednesday night's final presidential debate, according to a CNN/ORC poll of debate watchers.
There was a plus or minus four percentage point margin of error.
The sample of debate watchers was 36 per cent Democratic and 29 per cent Republican, making them slightly more Democratic than an average poll of all Americans.
Trump did outperform expectations, however. Nearly six in 10 viewers said he did better than expected, whereas 44 per cent said the same of Clinton, the poll showed.
The debate took place in the University of Nevada and was moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News.