Having displayed that sense of fair play, Reagan went on to clean Carter's clock in the remaining two debates.
Of course, John Anderson was actually able to convince 1 in 20 voters that he was a viable choice. It is a pretty modest standard and a case could be made to include someone polling the support of 1 in 25, 1 in 30 or even 1 in 50. But, so far as I can tell, none of these guys are polling even 1 in 100.
Reagan got about 51% of the vote, Anderson 7%, and Carter 41%.
What happened was that Anderson’s poll numbers declined when it became closer to Election Day which was why the second debate was just Reagan and Carter.