Election Night 2026 brought big ratings for the major news networks as Democrats swept both chambers of Congress. Millions of Americans tuned in to watch the results, giving CNN and MS NOW a major boost in viewership. However, it was NBC News that came out on top overall, thanks in part to election analyst Steve Kornacki, whose marathon coverage of the historical event also drew millions of viewers online.
Who won Election Night ratings?
As per preliminary Nielsen Fast National ratings, NBC News was the overall winner, averaging 6.519 million viewers during primetime, beating every other broadcast and cable news network (per Mediate).
ABC News came in second, averaging 4.906 million viewers for its election coverage, followed by CNN and MS NOW in third and fourth place with 3.927 million and 3.922 million viewers, respectively.
Conservative-leaning Fox News finished fifth with an average of 3.882 million viewers, while CBS News rounded out the list with 2.629 million.
Cable news coverage of Election Night
According to Mediate, CNN won primetime — the 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. slot — narrowly beating MS NOW and Fox News, but MS NOW won the full election coverage window of 6 p.m. until 2 a.m., with their We The People special averaging 3.3 million viewers, compared with CNN’s 3 million and Fox News’s 2.8 million.
CNN won among the key demographic of adults ages 25–54 with 1.44 million viewers. Fox News followed with 741,000 and MS NOW with 701,000.
Democrats were not the only big winners of the night
NBC’s Kornacki delivered some of the biggest numbers of the night with his 10.5-hour “Kornacki Cam” livestream, in which he delivered non-stop coverage of election results. Kornacki’s coverage brought in 29 million total views across platforms, with 6.1 million views on YouTube and more than 300,000 folks watching simultaneously at its peak.
NBC News/YouTube
The NBC News’ national political correspondent enthusiastically explained complicated voting patterns in a way that made sense to the average viewer. During the livestream, fans at home cheered him on as he took water breaks and broke down district changes for the viewers.
But the other networks also benefited from the historical moment as well. CNN reported double-digit primetime ratings growth compared with the 2022 midterms, along with strong digital engagement, while MS NOW beat both CNN and Fox News over the full eight-hour election window.
Fox News finished third among cable news networks and CBS News finished last, but reported an 8% increase in total viewers and a 12% increase among the key demographic of adults 25–54 compared with 2022.
