Movies

Fox News leads election night ratings as MSNBC tops CNN for the first time

BBG News

As a seasoned moviegoer who has witnessed the evolution of television news over the past few decades, I must say that this year’s election night viewership numbers are as captivating as a blockbuster hit. Fox News, with its consistent performance and unwavering popularity, played the lead role, while MSNBC made a stellar debut in the supporting cast.

On Election Night, Fox News emerged as the preferred television channel, making it the second consecutive time they outperformed their competitors in terms of viewership for presidential election results.

On Tuesday evening from 8 to 11 PM Eastern, I found myself among the 10.3 million viewers who chose to tune into Fox News, beating out ABC’s 5.7 million viewers who watched the former President Trump’s win against Vice President Kamala Harris. (Based on Nielsen data)

On a historic presidential election night, MSNBC surpassed CNN’s viewership for the very first time, marking a significant achievement for the network.

During a recent broadcast, MSNBC, which is owned by Comcast Corporation, attracted an average of 6 million viewers. This number surpassed CNN’s viewership of 5.1 million viewers, a network that is now under the ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery. Notably, CNN saw a significant drop in viewership compared to the 2020 presidential election, when they had approximately 9.6 million viewers. This represents nearly half of their initial audience.

TV viewership of this year’s election coverage saw a decline compared to 2020, as reported by Nielsen. A total of approximately 42.3 million viewers watched the election coverage across 18 measured networks, representing a decrease of around 25% from the previous year. In 2020, it took several days before the outcome was announced. Ultimately, Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner against then-incumbent Trump.

The reduction in viewership is primarily because audiences, particularly those below 50 years old, are transitioning from traditional TV to online streaming platforms and social media for news. This trend, known as ‘cord-cutting’, has led to a decrease in the number of households that cable news networks can reach.

In 2020, Fox News, hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, drew a record audience of 13.8 million viewers, a year when cable news channels saw an unprecedented surge in viewership. However, in comparison to this peak, the channel experienced a decrease in viewership for 2021. Despite MSNBC’s improved competitive standing, they too saw a drop from 7.3 million viewers in 2020.

Broadcast networks were down as well.

The NBC network led with 5.5 million viewers, trailed by CBS at 3.6 million, the regular Fox network with 2 million, Fox Business Network at 897,000 and NewsNation, which was aired on the CW Network as well, with 265,000 viewers.

A higher number of people are choosing to watch election coverage via online streaming platforms. Fox News reported that their digital sites garnered approximately 47.2 million views between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. Eastern Time. Moreover, MSNBC’s YouTube channel saw its best day yet with a record-breaking 30 million video views.

On YouTube, MSNBC’s “Kornacki-Cam,” offering a continuous perspective on Steve Kornacki’s election analysis, garnered over 9 million video views.

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2024-11-07 03:31

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