( CNN ) -- The first of four debates -- three presidential and one vice presidential -- in the final month of the election takes place October 3 in Denver . While we would love to tell you what will happen , the CNN Crystal Ball is out of order . Instead , our best guess of what to expect comes from debates past . Here 's a look back , by the numbers , of the trends and surprises of past debates . 61 : Percent of households that watched the third debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon on October 13 , 1960 . 12 : Times Jim Lehrer from PBS has served as the moderator , including 2012 . 4 : Debates with more than two debaters . When Ross Perot ran as a third-party Independent candidate in 1992 , he and running mate James Stockdale participated in the debates with Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush , and Al Gore and Dan Quayle . 3 : Election cycles in between the first series of televised debates in 1960 to the next series , in 1976 . 59 : Percent of likely voters who said in an ORC/CNN poll that they thought President Barack Obama would do a better job in the upcoming debates . 34 : Percent of likely voters who answered that Mitt Romney would do a better job . 7 : Debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas , the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 . Though Lincoln and Douglas were vying for the U.S. Senate when they held their series of debates in Illinois in 1858 , the issues they addressed -- including slavery -- were central to the presidential election two years later , in which both ran and which Lincoln won . 0 : Percent difference in likely voters ' answers in the same poll in 2008 , when the candidates were Obama and John McCain . 1 : Times a candidate has been told he was `` no Jack Kennedy , '' as Lloyd Bentsen said to Dan Quayle during the vice presidential debate in 1988 . 4 : Number of times a televised presidential debate has been hosted in St. Louis , Missouri -- the most of any city . 12 : Number of times Al Gore audibly sighed during the first debate with George W. Bush , on October 3 , 2000 . 1 : Times President George H. W. Bush visibly checked his watch during the October 15 , 1992 , debate against Bill Clinton and Ross Perot . 8 : Number of female moderators since 1960 , including CNN 's Candy Crowley this year , on October 16 . 2 : Number of female debaters since 1960 , vice presidential candidates Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008 . 2 : Elections where the outcome appeared to be affected by the televised debates : 1960 and 2000 , according analysis by Gallup .
2 : Elections in which the TV commentator appeared to affect the outcome . 3 : Host Jim Lehrer from PBS has served as the commentator including 2012 . 13 : Time cycles between the first set of televised presidential debates and the second .