The ratings are in from Monday afternoon’s solar eclipse event, and nearly all outlets saw a boost in afternoon viewership courtesy of that highly-anticipated celestial spectacle.
ABC News was the most watched broadcast network during the two-hour period (2-4 p.m. ET) when the broadcast nets provided live coverage.
NOTE: Solar eclipse programming provided by the broadcast nets was optional for their respective local affiliates. As a result, ABC News had 66% national coverage, CBS News had 63% national coverage and NBC News had 52% national coverage.
Fox News, which simulcast Fox Weather’s coverage, led all the cable news networks in total viewers during the three-hour period (1-4 p.m. ET) when the cable networks offered coverage.
On the streaming front, NBC News Now scored its second-best day this year during its two-hour (2-4 p.m. ET) coverage window. The livestream also ranked amongst the NBC streamer’s top five largest afternoon audiences on record and its largest in more than a year since the Donald Trump arraignment on April 4, 2023. Meanwhile, Monday was the highest day of hours streamed on ABC News Live this year, and the special was the streaming news channel’s most widely distributed live event ever.
See the eclipse ratings below:
Broadcast
ABC News (Eclipse Across America): 4.448 million total viewers, 920,000 A25-54
CBS News (Total Eclipse of the Heartland): 2.705 million total viewers, 447,000 A25-54 (2-3:30 p.m. ET)
NBC News (Solar Eclipse: 2024): 2.406 million total viewers, 483,000 A25-54
Cable
Fox News (America’s Total Eclipse): 2.1 million total viewers, 210,000 A25-54
CNN (Eclipse Across America): 1.7 million total viewers, 345,000 A25-54
MSNBC (Total Eclipse 2024): 895,000 total viewers, 118,000 A25-54
The Weather Channel (Solar Eclipse): 464,000 total viewers, 77,000 A25-54