TV Ratings: MSNBC Gets Big Election Night Boost With Democratic Wins

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CNN led among the key news demographic of adults 25-54 with 621,000 such viewers to 509,000 for MSNBC and 442,000 for Fox News.

In both measures, all three outlets were well above their recent primetime numbers: MSNBC and CNN each more than tripled their average total audience from the past month, and Fox News drew about 500,000 more viewers than a typical night.

Tuesday marked MSNBC’s and CNN’s best showings on an off-year election night since 2019.

Fox News also led the full 24-hour day on Tuesday with 1.97 million viewers, based on fast national numbers that don’t include out of home viewing. MSNBC drew 1.28 million — again, its best showing of the year so far — and CNN averaged 748,000.

Tuesday’s results saw Democrats win governorships in Virginia (Abigail Spanberger) and New Jersey (Mikie Sherrill) and Zohran Mamdani elected as mayor of New York City and California pass a redistricting proposition that could further tip the state’s congressional delegation to Democrats.

Tuesday night’s election coverage will be the last for MSNBC — at least under its current name. The channel is separated its editorial operations from NBC News and thus had its own reporters in the field on an election night for the first time in network history.

Nov. 6, 6:55 p.m. Updated with final ratings that reversed the order of finish between Fox News and MSNBC among all viewers Tuesday night.