Fox News Channel was the No. 1 cable news channel in total viewers, but CNN won the key demo of adults age 25-54 during New York primary coverage Tuesday night.
FNC averaged over 3 million primetime viewers compared to 2.57 million for CNN. MSNBC finished third with 1.71 million viewers. In the demo, CNN picked up the win by averaging 913,000 viewers compared to 600,000 for Fox News. MSNBC trailed with only 499,000.
Frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won the New York primaries when it came to picking up delegates, but CNN and Fox News are the winners in the world of cable news.
Clinton managed to score her first win in almost a month, putting an abrupt end to rival Bernie Sanders’ streak of seven consecutive victories.
Trump, a New York native, clinched a decisive victory as networks projected his win within seconds of polls closing. As soon as Trump was declared the winner, the city’s iconic Empire State building turned red in his honor. (The landmark lit up in dark blue when Clinton was declared the winner on the Democratic side.)
As Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” played in the background, Trump took to the stage at his Trump Tower in Manhattan, telling supporters, “We don’t have much of a race anymore, based on what I’m seeing on television. Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated.”
The Manhattan real estate developer — who’s been struggling to reshape his staff amid recent delegate losses in Wyoming, Colorado, Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina — could claim a majority of the 95 delegates if he captures more than 50 percent of the vote in each of the state’s 27 congressional districts.
The win gave Trump a much-needed boost as he heads into Pennsylvania and Indiana, which have emerged — along with California — as must-wins in the GOP contest.