Fox News might have been the dominant network on election night, but CNN was the No. 1 for day 2 coverage of the 2020 election.
According to final data from Nielsen, CNN Election Night in America (Continued) captured more 7.4 million viewers in prime time, more than the other broadcast and cable news competition who carried day two of the proceedings.
- Election 2020 – Day 2 (8 p.m.-11 p.m.) | Total Viewers / A25-54 demo
CNN– 7,376,000/ 3,268,000
FNC – 6,514,000/ 1,943,000
MSNBC– 4,973,000/ 1,389,000
NBC – 3,609,000/ 1,358,000
ABC – 2,509,000 / 812,000
CBS– 1,970,000/ 627,000
Looking exclusively at the big three broadcast nets— NBC devoted its entire prime time daypart to election coverage presented by NBC News, whereas ABC and CBS only presented live election coverage in the 10 p.m. ET hour.
If you compare the three head-to-head at 10 p.m. ET, NBC comes out on top: 3,183,000 vs. 2,616,000 for ABC, vs. 1,994,000 for CBS. Among adults 25-54, it’s 1,255,000 for NBC, 851,000 for ABC and 637,000 for CBS.
Lastly, across the first two days of coverage (Election Day – Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Wednesday, Nov. 4), Fox News has averaged 10.2 million viewers in prime time. CNN has averaged 8.3 million in that same span, and MSNBC 6.2 million.