US election-night TV lures 57 million viewers, a drop from 2016

New York: Just over 56.9 million TV viewers tuned in to watch election returns on US TV networks last night, a decline from four years ago that may have reflected voter exhaustion and the lack of a clear winner.

Fox News led overall, with an estimated 14.1 million viewers in prime time, an 18% increase from 2016, according to Nielsen data supplied by the network. AT&T Inc’s CNN finished second. Walt Disney Co’s ABC said it was first among broadcast networks with an audience of 6.3 million. ViacomCBS Inc’s CBS unit reported record online viewers.

Livestreams from the networks may have siphoned viewers from traditional broadcasts. The election-night audience had been trending up over the past 20 years with the growth of cable TV. The most recent high was 71.4 million viewers in 2008, when Barack Obama defeated John McCain to become the first African-American US president.


Four years ago, about 71 million viewers tuned in to watch the results on 13 networks offering live coverage during prime time, according to Nielsen. That was up from 66 million total viewers in 2012. Fox News, a division of Fox Corp., made some early calls election night, including identifying Democrat Joe Biden as the winner in both Virginia and Arizona.