Associated Press: CNBC reached its biggest audience ever with the third Republican presidential debate, but paid a price in criticism of how its moderators handled the opportunity to question the candidates. Some 14 million viewers watched the debate Wednesday night, down from the 24 million who saw the first contest on Fox News Channel in February and 23 million viewers for CNN’s second contest. Still, it’s an extraordinarily high bar: a 2011 debate with GOP candidates on CNBC had 3.3 million viewers.