The Other Midterms Flip: Broadcast Networks Dominated Election Night Coverage

In addition to changing the composition of Congress and a number of statehouses, the midterm elections brought another kind of disruption to the status quo: For the first time in 6 election cycles, more people watched the returns come in on network TV than on cable. Per Nielsen ratings, 31.21 million people watched primetime election coverage on 13 broadcast and cable outlets Tuesday, significantly more than the 25.43 million viewers for the 2022 midterms. Of that audience, 57 percent (17.79 million) watched on broadcast outlets (NBC, ABC, CBS, Univision, Telemundo and PBS), and just 43 percent (13.42 million) on cable channels. That’s exactly the inverse of four years ago, when 57 percent of viewers went to cable for midterm coverage. It’s been 14 years since broadcast networks drew a clear majority of election night viewers (there was a roughly 50-50 split in 2016). That was also the last election a broadcaster led all comers on — and in both 2012 and this year, NBC finished first. The network had 6.74 million viewers in primetime Tuesday, more than doubling its 2022 average. ABC also improved considerably, growing by 57 percent from four years ago to 5.19 million viewers. CBS was off the pace some at 2.76 million, but it also improved by 8 percent from 2022. Univision (1.54 million), Telemundo (1.06 million) and PBS (about 500,000) made up the rest of the broadcast total. CNN and MS NOW also improved their numbers from 2022, but Fox News tumbled by almost 3.5 million viewers. The big three broadcasters, however, collectively gained more viewers than Fox News lost, so the off night for Fox doesn’t fully explain the shift in balance from cable to broadcast. So what does? For one, cable as a whole has also suffered across-the-board declines in the past four years. Homes with multi-channel providers (cable, satellite or digital services like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV) only represent 42.5 percent of TV homes now, down from 52.3 percent four years ago. That represents a loss of more than 10 million households. Some of it might also be ideological: Fox News leans right, and a night when Republicans took bruising losses might have helped drive ratings down there. MS NOW’s gains could similarly be put down to a blue wave helping the left-leaning channel. Tuesday’s viewer leaders, ABC and NBC, work to project big-tent inclusiveness, which seems to have paid off some. Marc Greenstein, executive vp creative production and field operations for NBC News, pointed to reporting initiatives on the NBC Nightly News and Meet the Press that try go beyond the “left-right food fight,” as he put it, and explore substantive issues and points of commonality. NBC also scored a multi-platform win Tuesday, as its dedicated “Kornacki Cam” live stream of analyst Steve Kornacki throughout the night was the most watched live stream of election coverage. NBC News as a whole led election night streams with 4.39 million hours of viewing on its YouTube channels, according to analytics firm Streams Charts (Twitch streamer Hasan Piker was second with 1.75 million hours). The Kornacki Cam was also something of a tech breakthrough for NBC News, Greenstein said. Kornacki was stationed about 15 feet away from the network’s main desk, but both the TV broadcast and the live stream were able to run simultaneously without interfering with one another. NBC used software from a company called Waves that filters audio, allowing for clean sound on both despite their proximity. “I talked to our engineering team maybe a week and a half before the elections, and it just so happened that [Saturday Night Live] had just started using it not too long before,” Greenstein said. “We were literally in the midst of rehearsals when we turned this thing on, and we decided to take the risk and put it out there because we thought it was much more important to really integrate Steve into the [TV] broadcast.” The live stream and on-air telecast ended up being mutually reinforcing, Greenstein said, possibly helping draw viewers in. NBC’s decision desk was also among the fastest to call some key races and the first to project Democratic control of the U.S. Senate. That said, Greeenstein didn’t know ahead of Tuesday night that NBC would end up at the top of the ratings. “We like to think we put in really good groundwork and incredible preparation going into the night, so we always hope that the audience will pay us back for that work,” Greenstein told The Hollywood Reporter. “One thing I will say is that I think NBC, maybe more than others, we just do big events well as a network. You look at the Super Bowl, the Olympics, election night — we just have a bigness and a gravitas. I think that matters on these type of nights, and I think that is an advantage we have.”