[Vision2020] Election Night 2010 Ratings: Fox News Dominates With 7 Million Viewers

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/03/election-night-2010-ratin_n_778420.html

The 2010 midterm elections were a great night for Fox News ratings.

The network averaged 6.975 million total viewers in primetime Tuesday
night to easily dominate the cable news ratings race.

CNN placed second with 2.424 million total viewers, while MSNBC came
in third with 1.957 million total viewers. All numbers are according
to Nielsen Media Research.

Of course, those numbers pale in comparison to 2008 Election Night,
when CNN surged to 12.3 million total viewers, Fox News averaged 9.0
million total viewers, and MSNBC averaged 5.9 million total viewers.

But they also represent an 18% dip for CNN from 2006 midterm elections
night, when the network averaged 2.971 million total viewers. MSNBC
remained flat from its 2006 midterm election night ratings, when it
averaged 1.95 million total viewers.

The most telling story, however, is Fox News, which more than doubled
its 2006 midterm election night ratings average of 3.06 million total
viewers. The network's coverage was anchored by Bret Baier and Megyn
Kelly and included appearances by primetime hosts Bill O'Reilly, Sean
Hannity and Greta Van Susteren as well as analysis from contributor
Sarah Palin.

In the 10PM hour, Fox News even beat the three broadcast networks,
according to the preliminary ratings data (final ratings for the
broadcast networks is not available until Thursday). The network
averaged 6.9 million total viewers to NBC's 6.1 million ABC's 5.9
million and CBS' 6.0 million.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett