It was the Republican party and Fox News Channel's night.
As the GOP gained control of the Senate, Fox News Channel set the pace with the Nielsen electorate garnering the largest overall audience and also standing atop the so-called news demo among cable and broadcast networks with its midterm election coverage.
Fox News Channel averaged 6.6 million watchers in the 10 p.m. hour (ET), when the three broadcast networks turned their attention to the results. CBS placed with 5.4 million viewers, compared with 4.2 million for NBC and 3.1 million for ABC.
For their part, CNN, which is currently dark on Dish Network, scored 1.9 million watchers during the period, while MSNBC registered with 1.6 million viewers.
Among the 25-to-54 set, FNC led the way with 1.8 million watchers, while CBS had 1.55 million and NBC 1.48 million. ABC was fourth, counting 1.08 million in that group, ahead of CNN's 912,000 and MSNBC's 566,000. That marked the first time that the cable news leader bested all of the broadcasters with the news demo.
During primetime from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., FNC averaged 6.3 million watchers, versus 2.1 million for CNN and 1.7 million for MSNBC.
On the demo watch, FNC scored with almost 1.7 million adults 25 to 54, more than double the combined total of its cable competitors: 909,000 for CNN and 525,000 for MSNBC.
