Thursday, November 7, 2024

TV Ratings: 42.3M Americans Viewed Election Results


Tuesday night’s election coverage for the 2024 presidential election was down more than 25% when compared to the 2020 election.

As viewers tuned in to watch results spill in for the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, election night coverage brought in 42.3 million viewers across 18 TV networks from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures. That’s down 25.6% from the 2020 election, whose night-of coverage for the race between Joe Biden and Trump — whose results ended up stretching into the weekend — brought in 56.92 million viewers across 21 channels. according to The Wrap.

FOX News Media reports its primetime coverage (8-11PM/ET) of election night across FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Network, FOX Business Network (FBN) and FOX News Digital topped all television networks with nearly 13 million viewers and 4 million in the 25-54 demo, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. 

FNC’s Democracy 2024 primetime coverage averaged nearly 10 million in total viewers and 2.9 million in the 25-54 younger demographic, dominating the competition in both categories and beating ABC, NBC, CBS and all cable news networks for the second election in a row.

Co-anchored by Special Report’s Bret Baier and The Story’s Martha MacCallum, the network’s marathon coverage from 6 PM – 3 AM/ET averaged 8.2 million viewers and 2.4 million in the 25-54 demo, leading all of television. 

FNC’s coverage peaked during the 10 PM/ET hour with 10.3 million viewers and 3.1 million in the 25-54 demo. Across total day (3 AM – 3 AM/ET), FNC also reigned supreme, averaging 4.4 million viewers and 1.1 million in the younger 25-54 demo for the duration of Election Day coverage. In the 1 AM/ET hour, FNC’s Decision Desk was the first major network to call the race for former President Donald Trump and the channel commanded over 7 million viewers and 2.2 million in the 25-54 demo, leading CNN and MSNBC combined. In terms of cable news share, FNC occupied 49% of viewers in primetime and 51% across total day.

In commenting on the ratings performance, FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said, “FOX News dominated every aspect of this historic election cycle from primary debates to town halls to being the only network to conduct interviews with all four candidates in both parties in a one-week span as Bret Baier helmed the most buzzed about interview of the race. I am extremely proud of our team’s commitment to delivering the top reporting and analysis to the largest and most politically diverse audience in news and once again beating every broadcast and cable network across the board.”

FOX Business Network’s simulcast in primetime secured 710,000 viewers and 303,000 in the 25-54 demo marking the business network’s most-watched primetime in network history in the younger demo. Comparatively, CNBC’s primetime coverage averaged just 105,000 viewers and 48,000 in the 25-54 demo.

According to Nielsen Media Research, FNC was the most watched cable news network in every swing state, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Additionally, more Independents and Democrats continued to tune in to FNC over any other network, according to data from Nielsen MRI Fusion, and the network was also number one among Hispanic and Asian viewers. According to a recent YouGov study, more Independents get their news from FOX News than from any of the competition.



FOX News Media’s digital properties, according to Adobe Analytics, YouTube Analytics and Meta, delivered a record day of engagement across key performance indicators. This marked FOX News Digital’s best day since 2020 in terms of page views, media initiations, and total minutes spent. Additionally, it was the best day since 2021 for unique devices. FOX News Digital secured 47.2 million livestream views between 6 PM – 3 AM/ET. During this timeframe, including FOX Nation, FOX News Digital saw an average minute audience of 386,000. Additionally, FOX News Go’s unique viewing devices were up 1768% compared to the average weekday this year and its media initiates were up 1800% vs. the average weekday in 2024.

On social media, FOX News Media properties were number one in total social engagement among the news competitive set. The platforms garnered 2.9 million social interactions across Facebook, X and Instagram, according to Emplifi. Notably, the FOX News mobile app is currently the number three free app in the App Store.

6 PM – 3 AM/ET
  • FNC: 8.2 million P2+; 2.4 million A25-54
  • CNN: 3.5 million P2+; 1.5 million A25-54
  • MSNBC: 3.9 million P2+; 1.1 million A25-54
8 PM – 11 PM/ET,,,FOX Properties (FNC, FBN, FOX Network and FOX News Digital): 
  • 13 million P2+; 4 million A25-54
  • FNC: 9.8 million P2+; 2.9 million A25-54
  • FOX: 2.1 million P2+, 891,000 A25-54
  • FBN: 710,000 P2+; 303,000 A25-54
  • CNN: 4.7 million P2+; 2 million A25-54
  • MSNBC: 5.5 million P2+; 1.6 million A25-54
  • ABC: 5.7 million P2+; 2.2 million A25-54
  • NBC: 5.3 million P2+; 2.1 million A25-54
  • CBS: 3.5 million P2+; 1.2 million A25-54
  • NewsNation: 257,000 P2+; 65,000 A25-54

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