Fox News Leads in Viewership During Election Week
During the recent election week, many Americans turned to Fox News Channel for insights and analysis concerning significant races in states like Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City. In fact, for the week of November 3, Fox News recorded an average of 1.4 million daily viewers, placing it at the top among all cable networks.
It should be noted that Fox News was the only network to exceed the one million viewer mark, with MSNBC following at 695,000 viewers and ESPN close behind with 637,000. CNN struggled with only 487,000 viewers on average.
Key Election Night Performance
In prime time, Fox News achieved a remarkable 2.2 million viewers, while ESPN settled for 1.5 million and MSNBC garnered 1.3 million. CNN trailed with 786,000. When looking at the crucial 25-54 age demographic, which advertisers often target, Fox News averaged 132,000 daily viewers and 220,000 in prime time, outperforming both CNN and MSNBC in these metrics.
On election night itself, Fox News drew in an average of 2.92 million viewers in prime time, surpassing MSNBC’s 2.88 million and CNN’s 1.9 million. The evening was highlighted by decisive victories for Democrats in prominent races, including gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey, alongside Zoran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York.
Additionally, Fox News outshined NBC across 23 of the top 25 markets, which included major cities such as New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. “The Five” stood out with 3.6 million viewers, securing the number one spot in cable news during this pivotal news cycle. “Hannity” was also impressive, taking the demographic title with 311,000 viewers.
Ongoing Success of Fox Shows
Programming like “Special Report with Bret Baier,” “The Ingraham Angle,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” “Gutfeld!” and “FOX News @ Night with Trace Gallagher” have all been instrumental in keeping Fox News ahead of its competition. Notably, “Gutfeld!” averaged 2.6 million viewers, outshining CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Even after the election, viewer interest remained strong; for instance, on Wednesday, “Jesse Watters Prime Time” featured an exclusive interview with Erica Kirk, attracting an average of 3.1 million viewers. This indicates, perhaps surprisingly, a lack of viewer fatigue following the election.
Other programs such as “The Will Cain Show,” “America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino,” “Outnumbered,” “Faulkner Focus,” and several others also performed well, consistently outperforming NBC’s offerings.
Moreover, Kayleigh McEnany’s “Saturday in America” achieved the top spot for Saturday with 1.4 million viewers, while Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” claimed the Sunday crown with 1.5 million viewers.
