NBC News Tops Primetime Viewership For Election Results; Nielsen Says Overall Audience Rose 23% To 31.2 Million From Last Midterm

UPDATED, with final numbers: NBC News‘ midterm Election Night coverage topped major networks, drawing an average of 6.7 million viewers in primetime Tuesday, according to the final figures from Nielsen.

ABC News drew an average of 5.2 million in primetime, followed by Fox News with 4.32 million, CNN with 4.15 million, MS NOW 3.74 million and CBS with 2.76 million.

Overall, 31.2 million watched primetime coverage across 13 networks, according to Nielsen. That is up 23% from the last midterm, in 2022, when 25.4 million watched. It’s down from Donald Trump’s last midterm, when 36.11 million watched. That was the most for a midterm so far this century,

Fox News’ audience averaged almost 4.7 million when combined with Fox Business Network, which simulcast its coverage and drew 346,000.

Among other networks, Newsmax averaged 576,000 and NewsNation posted 232,000. In early numbers from Wednesday, Univision drew 1.63 million and Telemundo garnered 1.01 million.

In the 25-54 demo, NBC averaged 2.79 million, compared to 1.67 million for ABC, 1.51 million for CNN, 798,000 for CBS, 771,000 for Fox News and 665,000 for MS NOW.

The figures have been updated following Nielsen’s Big Data release on Thursday.