Similar to its former Apprentice host, NBC was a big winner in Tuesday’s election coverage, the network playing to a 4.4 rating in adults 18-49 and an 11 share, according to Nielsen’s overnight ratings. Second was ABC at 3.0/7, then CBS at 2.6/6, Fox at 1.6/4 and The CW at 0.3/1.
NBC averaged just short of 12 million total viewers, per Nielsen. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt fronted the coverage alongsideToday co-host Savannah Guthrie and Meet the Press moderator/NBC News political director Chuck Todd. Special correspondent Tom Brokaw lent his expertise to NBC News as well.
ABC averaged 9.7 million on the night, CBS 8.8 million and Fox 4.5 million.
The close race saw Donald Trump seal up the win in the early a.m. hours Wednesday.
The cable news networks of course drew scads of viewers with their political coverage. Ratings will be available later.
The CW stuck with entertainment programming, albeit repeats. The Flash did a 0.4 and No Tomorrow a 0.2.
After a long year-plus of losing viewers to debates and other campaign coverage on the cable news nets, the primetime shows now get their audiences back.
