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Election Night TV Audience Tumbles to 42 Million; Fox Leads

Hannah Miller

6 November 2024 at 6:48 pm·1-min read

(Bloomberg) -- More than 42.3 million people tuned in to prime-time news coverage of the 2024 presidential election, a 25% decline from four years ago, according to data from Nielsen.

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Fox News, at nearly 10.3 million viewers, was the most-watched channel on election night, based on numbers provided by that network, followed by ABC and MSNBC.

Nielsen’s total revises results reported earlier in the day, which were based on a smaller number of channels. An estimated 56.9 million tuned in to watch prime-time coverage in 2020 based on 21 networks, the research firm said. This year’s tally was based on 18.

Republican Donald Trump won the election in an extraordinary political comeback.

In calling states for candidates, news networks showed caution and restraint, even as chances of a victory waned for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. While it took days for Joe Biden to emerge as winner of the 2020 race, Nexstar Media Group Inc.’s NewsNation became the first outlet to declare Trump the winner just a little after 1:22 a.m. New York time on Wednesday, citing Decision Desk HQ, a research outfit.

The 2024 election saw more options for streaming, including on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max and Comcast Corp.’s Peacock, meaning the conventional broadcast and cable outlets faced more competition.

Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video service featured an election show hosted by former NBC News anchor Brian Williams. The show, which lacked the huge screens and colorful graphics that are a staple of other networks, is part of an ongoing movement by streaming services to offer live programming.

(Updates Fox number in second paragraph.)

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