Poll: 73% of voters 'likely' to watch first Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debate

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A poll reveals 73 percent of registered voters say they are "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to watch the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton next week.

The first of the presidential debates is scheduled to take place Monday at New York's Hofstra University. It will be moderated by NBC's Lester Holt and will be televised on all the major networks and cable news channels. The other presidential debates are Oct. 9 in St. Louis and on Oct. 19 in Las Vegas.

In the Morning Consult poll, 44 percent say they are "very likely" to watch the debate, while 29 percent say they are "somewhat likely." Among other respondents, 13 percent said "not too likely," another 11 percent "not at all likely" and 3 percent "don't know/no opinion."

When asked who they think will win the debate, 37 person picked Clinton and 31 percent chose Trump. About a third of those surveyed (32 percent) didn't know or had no opinion.

Those surveyed also were asked which debate moderator they think "will host the best debate overall." They favored Anderson Cooper of CNN with 28 percent followed by Lester Holt and Chris Wallace both at 15 percent and Martha Raddatz (ABC) at 8 percent. A total of 34 percent who responded didn't know or had no opinion.

Cooper and Raddatz will co-host the second debate and Wallace will moderate the third one.

Trump last week told the Washington Post didn't think Cooper should be a moderator because "CNN is the Clinton News Network and Anderson Cooper, I don't think he can be fair."

Twenty-eight percent of survey respondents said they thought Cooper would ask the toughest questions and 22 percent said he would be the least biased.

Survey respondents are not happy with either candidate.

A total of 59 percent said Clinton wasn't the Democratic Party's best choice for its nominee among those who ran for president and 61 percent said Trump wasn't the best in the GOP.

The survey was conducted with 1,861 registered voters on Thursday and Friday with a margin of error of 1 percentage points.