Despite the results being known early on in the night, the three big cable news networks still drew more than 8.6 million prime time viewers for coverage of the New Hampshire primary. When final numbers are released in the TVNewser Scoreboard after 4 p.m., this will go down as the second most-watched primary night ever for cable news, after Iowa last week. Fox News averaged the most total and demo viewers:
- Feb. 9, 8-11 p.m. ET | Total Viewers / A25-54 demo
FNC: 4,173,339 / 991,768
CNN: 2,729,371 / 950,610
MSNBC: 1,748,094 / 493,692
While still impressive, the New Hampshire numbers were below the Iowa Caucus’s 10.1 million viewer average. But the results of that race were not known until later in the night, creating increased interest. In New Hampshire, both the Democratic and Republican races were called at 8 p.m. ET, for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, respectively. Even, the GOP’s runner-up, Gov. John Kasich was called before the end of the night.