Far fewer viewers tuned in to watch the 2024 prime-time election results compared to 2020, according to the latest Nielsen ratings report.
An estimated 42.3 million viewers watched the returns on Tuesday night across 18 networks. That’s a 25 percent drop compared to the 2020 election, which drew 56.9 million prime-time viewers.
It‘s not clear how many of those viewers turned to streaming services or social media for their news—known as “cord cutting”—versus how many tuned out altogether. Some experts speculate viewership was down in part because this year’s race was nowhere near as close as 2020.
Fox News Channel led among viewers, with an average of 10.3 million people tuning in between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, the Los Angeles Times reported. Next was MSNBC, which clocked an average of 6 million viewers, followed by ABC (5.7 million), NBC (5.5 million), CNN (5.1 million), CBS (3.6 million) and Fox broadcast network (2 million).
It was the first time MSBNC has ever beaten out CNN on a presidential election night. The Atlanta-based broadcaster’s viewership was down almost 50 percent compared to the 2020 election, when 9.6 million people tuned in.
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