The final election night broadcast ratings from Nielsen just came in, and in a noteworthy feat, Fox News’ primetime coverage of the midterms beat ABC, CBS and NBC’s election coverage in total viewers.
Fox News averaged about 7 million viewers between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, edging ABC, which had 6.8 million between 9:30 and 11:00.
That’s significant, considering ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” averaged 19 million the previous hour.
NBC averaged 6.4 million between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m., and CBS came in third during its truncated coverage (10:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.).
The other cable networks trailed the big three broadcast nets — with average total viewers for CNN at 2.42 million and MSNBC at 1.94 million, per Nielsen figures.
NBC and ABC did have more 25-to-54-year-old viewers watching its election coverage than Fox, with 2.9 million and 2.6 million, respectively, to FNC's 2.4 million.
But when you compare 10-11:00 p.m., the common hour of coverage for Fox and the broadcast networks, FNC's total viewer win is actually larger.
