Ratings: Election Night Down Sharply vs. 2020; Fox News Channel, ABC Lead in Viewers
ABC led the “Big 4” broadcast networks on Tuesday with its Election Night news coverage from 8 to 11 pm ET.
ABC’s coverage averaged just shy of 5.7 million total viewers, followed by NBC’s 5.3 million, CBS’ 3.5 mil and Fox’s 2.1 mil. (Numbers for The CW’s Decision Desk special are still to come.)
More from TVLine
ABC also led all broadcast networks in the Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 demos — the first time in 16 years the Alphabet network has ranked No. 1 on Election Night in all three measures.
Among cable news outlets, Fox News Channel led with 9.8 million total viewers, followed by MSNBC’s 5.5 million and CNN’s 4.7 million; FNC also led cable and broadcast in the 25-54 demo. (All told, Fox properties, including Fox and Fox Business, accounted for 13 million viewers.)
UPDATE: All told, Nielsen now reports, 42.3 million viewers tuned in across ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CW, Merit Street Media, Scripps News, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, CNNe, FOX News Channel, FOX Business Network, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS. (Prime Video has not yet released any numbers for Brian Williams’ live special.)
Four years ago on Election Night 2020, an estimated 56.9 million people (including out-of-home viewership) tuned in to watch coverage of former Vice President Joe Biden’s win over incumbent POTUS Donald Trump. That total was down some 30 percent from coverage of the 2016 presidential election between businessman Trump and former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Clinton. Fox News led all comers that night with nearly 14 million total viewers, followed by CNN’s 9.1 million. ABC that year again topped all broadcast networks, with 6.1 million viewers.
Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
