Univision was the go-to Spanish language news network for Election Day 2020, with its Destino 2020 Presenta: La Gran Noche coverage averaging 1.9 million total viewers in prime time. Its main rival, Telemundo, on the other hand, averaged 1.5 million in the same daypart.
While Univision beat Telemundo on Election Day and prime time, Telemundo beat Univision on the day the race was called for now-Pres.Elect Joe Biden, Saturday, Nov. 7. According to Nielsen, on that Saturday, Telemundo averaged 763,000 total day viewers and 1.32 million total prime time viewers.
Noticias Telemundo (the network’s evening newscast) also a new record with its highest-rated Saturday evening telecast in network history, drawing 1.3 million total viewers.
Soon after the evening newscast, Telemundo went on to see its highest-rated hour of election coverage of the week during the 8 p.m. ET time slot with 1.74 million total viewers, outperforming election news specials that aired at the same time on Univision and Fox TV. That 8 p.m. hour included Telemundo’s airing of the speeches given by President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
In local markets, Telemundo was also the most-watched Spanish-language network in total day and live prime time dayparts in key Hispanic markets including Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Dallas.