Key Points
- Finalized Nielsen data shows Fox News had the biggest audience with Election Day coverage in prime-time.
- CNN has the strongest audience in the key demographic of adults between the ages of 25 and 54 years old.
- MSNBC was declared the victor based on preliminary Nielsen data, which has since changed.
On Tuesday, the political candidates were not the only ones who were in the middle of a competitive race — the cable networks were, too.
One day after the polls closed in New York City, California, New Jersey and Virginia, MSNBC declared itself the victor of Election Night, based on preliminary ratings data that originated from Nielsen.
Realistically, the cable news ratings race was “too close to call,” with the difference between MSNBC’s overall prime-time numbers and that of Fox News remarkably close.
In the end, Fox News was the actual victor, based on finalized data from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panels product. Fox News attracted 2.924 million viewers, based on data seen by The Desk, with the difference between it and MSNBC coming down to just 41,000 viewers.
MSNBC was in a very close, and respectable, second place at 2.883 million viewers, the finalized Nielsen numbers revealed, while CNN was in a comparatively distant third place with 1.914 million viewers.
CNN achieved a milestone of its own on Election Day, with its prime-time coverage attracting the most viewers in the key demographic of adults between the ages of 25 and 54 years old (A25-54) — the group that cable news advertisers try to reach the most.
Among the A25-54 audience, CNN attracted 621,000 viewers in prime-time, while MSNBC had 509,000 viewers and Fox News had 442,000 viewers.
The finalized ratings data was provided by the networks, and verified by Nielsen in an email to The Desk early Friday morning. Viewership data for NewsNation and Newsmax, two other cable news channels measured by Nielsen, was not immediately available.
Networks that obtain ratings data from Nielsen are allowed to share preliminary, or “same-day,” viewership figures with members of the news media under the measurement firm’s press policy, which specifies that the data must be promoted as “preliminary.”
MSNBC followed Nielsen’s press policy when it shared the preliminary ratings data with reporters between Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon. The Desk was one of the few outlets to note that the preliminary data put Fox News in a close second, and that Fox News might wind up ahead when finalized data was released.
Finalized viewership data is based on the “Big Data” part of Nielsen’s Big Data + Panels measurement product, which supersedes all preliminary ratings and is typically higher than initial numbers shared by a network. Nielsen collects viewership data from more than 75 million Internet-connected devices, including smart TVs and set-top boxes, which gives a more-holistic view of the audience landscape.
Given the scope of how many devices Nielsen must measure, and the various ways that smart TVs, set-top boxes and apps account for its audience, it takes a bit of time to deliver finalized ratings data through Big Data + Panels, the person said. Finalized ratings data from Big Data + Panels is typically delivered to clients about two to three days after a television broadcast.
Nielsen began releasing using Big Data + Panels reports for the fall television season in September, about eight months after the Media Rating Council accredited the product. The Desk began receiving weekly reports based on Nielsen’s Big Data + Panels product in late September, and uses them for its broadcast and cable viewership charts, which are published between Wednesday and Thursday.
