Fox News Channel’s primetime coverage of Election Night 2022 crushed all broadcast and cable television networks, outdrawing ABC, NBC and CBS in addition to MSNBC and CNN.
Fox News’ coverage, anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, averaged a staggering 7.7 million viewers from 8-11 p.m. ET, thumping CNN and MSNBC combined in the process.
MSNBC averaged three million viewers and CNN settled for 2.5 million. Among broadcast options, NBC averaged 3.1 million viewers, ABC averaged three million and CBS managed 2.5 million.
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Brit Hume, Martha MacCallum, Bret Baier and Dana Perino helped Fox News crush ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN viewership.
(FOX)
Fox News also demolished all competitors among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging 1.8 million viewers in the critical category. NBC finished second with a little over one-million demo viewers to top the broadcast outlets, while CNN managed 982,000 demo viewers to top MSNBC’S 747,000.
Fox News also dominated Election Night when expanding to the entire 6 p.m. ET to 2 a.m. ET window, averaging 5.4 million viewers compared to 2.6 million for MSNBC and 1.9 million for CNN. It was the first time in television history that CNN finished dead last in midterm election coverage among the three relevant networks.
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Among the critical demo, Fox News averaged 1.3 million viewers between ages 25-54 while MSNBC and CNN failed to crack the one-million viewer barrier.
FNC also beat all networks among total day coverage, averaging 3.1 million viewers and 649,000 in the key demo during Election Day coverage. Fox News finished with its highest-rated midterm election coverage among total day viewers.
Brit Hume, Dana Perino, Bill Hemmer and Harris Faulkner were among the other Fox News personalities to offer insight and analysis during the evening’s coverage.
FNC was also home to the most politically diverse audience in all of cable news with more Democrats, Independents and Republicans watching than CNN or MSNBC among both total day and primetime, according to data from Nielsen MRI Fusion.
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FOX News Digital had a record day of engagement across all key performance indicators, notching double digit increases in all categories. Compared to midterm Election Day in 2018, unique devices increased by 10% page views were up 25%, and time spent was up 21%, according to Adobe Analytics.
Americans didn’t only consume Fox News’ Election Night coverage on linear TV. There were 9 million total livestream views during election day 2022 across all FOX News Digital properties, FOX Nation, Facebook, and YouTube, according to Adobe Analytics, YouTube Analytics, and CrowdTangle. It was the highest day of engagement on the FOX News livestream in midterm election history.
Fox News was also number one in the news competitive set with social media engagement.
All viewership data courtesy of early Nielsen Media Research.
