Fox News topped Nov. 3 election night coverage that featured Republican gubernatorial upsets in Virginia and New Jersey.
From 8-11 p.m. when returns were trickling in, Fox News averaged 4 million total viewers with 1.1 million among news' target demographic of 25-54 year olds, according to Nielsen.
MSNBC was second in total viewers attracting 974,000. But the network was edged out in the demo by HLN (341,000 to 308,000). HLN was third in total viewers with 842,000. CNN was fourth in both categories averaging 826,000 total viewers and 227,000 in the demo.
MSNBC went to the usual rerun of Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 10 p.m. with election cut-ins from Lawrence O'Donnell. Meanwhile over at HLN, Joy Behar and Nancy Grace stuck with their usual non-election programming.
Fox News went to tape at midnight and CNN wrapped up its election coverage at 1 a.m.
For Fox News, election night coverage marked an increase of 84% in total viewers and 110% in the demo compared to the network's primetime average so far this year. MSNBC was up 18% in viewers and 8% in the demo. HLN was up 49% in viewers and 56% in the demo and CNN was down 12% in viewers and 18% in the demo.
