Fox News Channel wins midterm election night ratings

Fox News Channel led Tuesday night ratings with coverage of the midterm elections.

According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News Channel beat CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC and ABC’s coverage in both total viewers and in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic.

Co-anchored by Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly, the channel’s election coverage averaged 6.3 million viewers during prime time.

CNN was the second most watched news network, with 2.1 million viewers during prime time. MSNBC came in third with about 1.7 million viewers.

The high ratings for Fox News Channel comes on the heels of an overall positive third quarter for Fox News Channel.

In September, the network announced it topped prime-time cable ratings for the first time since October 1996. In total day ratings, Fox News Channel was third among all cable networks, surpassing ratings for ESPN and USA.

In Tuesday night’s 10 p.m. timeslot, Fox News Channel was also No. 1, averaging 6.6 million viewers. CBS came in second with 5.4 million viewers. NBC rounded out the top three with about 4.2 million viewers.

With 3.1 million viewers, ABC was No. 4. CNN took fifth with 1.9 million viewers. Meanwhile, MSNBC fell in last place with about 1.6 million viewers.

Compared to coverage of the 2010 midterm elections, overall viewership of the election results dropped. During the last election, Fox News’ prime-time average was 7 million total viewers, while CNN earned 2.4 million and MSNBC 1.9 million.

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