NBC News Tops Primetime Viewership For 2026 Midterm Elections Results

UPDATED, with final numbers: NBC News‘ midterm Election Night coverage topped major networks, drawing an average of 6.7 million viewers in primetime Tuesday, according to the final figures from Nielsen.

ABC News drew an average of 5.2 million in primetime, followed by Fox News with 4.32 million, CNN with 4.15 million, MS NOW 3.74 million and CBS with 2.76 million.

Overall, the six major networks drew about 27 million viewers, up from the 21.8 million who watched in 2022.

Fox News’ audience averaged almost 4.7 million when combined with Fox Business Network, which simulcast its coverage and drew 346,000.

Among other networks, Newsmax averaged 576,000 and NewsNation posted 232,000. In early numbers from Wednesday, Univision drew 1.63 million and Telemundo garnered 1.01 million.

In the 25-54 demo, NBC averaged 2.79 million, compared to 1.67 million for ABC, 1.51 million for CNN, 798,000 for CBS, 771,000 for Fox News and 665,000 for MS NOW.

The figures have been updated following Nielsen’s Big Data release on Thursday.