9.1 Million Watch “Election Night in America” on CNN
CNN Surpasses All the Broadcast Networks and MSNBC
CNN Digital Sees Best Day in History w/ 85 Million and Climbing on Wed. Nov. 4th as of 3pm ET
9.085 million total viewers watched last night’s Election Night in America on CNN according to Nielsen Fast National data in prime time (8-11pm). In the key demo adults 25-54, 4.444 million tuned in and CNN was #1 in younger viewers (18-34) with 1.544 million. CNN easily surpassed all the broadcast networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox (broadcast) as well as MSNBC on cable in both total viewers and the demos. CNN Digital is on pace to hit its largest audience ever on Wednesday, Nov. 4th with 85 million global unique users and growing as of 3pm ET. CNN saw a historic audience of 67 million unique users on Election Day 2020, surpassing the 2016 Presidential Election by +15%.
CNN also registered the youngest audience in cable news (FNC and MSNBC) and among the three major broadcast nets (ABC, CBS and NBC) on Election Night in prime time (8-11pm) and during the full coverage block across cable news (7pm-3am).
Cable News Full Coverage Block (7pm-3am)
For the full coverage block (cable news only because the broadcast nets ended coverage at different times), CNN easily topped MSNBC in total viewers, adults 25-54; while outperforming both FNC and MSNBC in younger viewers:
CNN Digital
CNN Digital is tracking to hit its largest audience ever on Wednesday, Nov. 4th with 85 million global unique users and growing as of 3pm ET. CNN saw a historic audience of 67 million unique users on Election Day 2020, surpassing the 2016 Presidential Election by +15%. Historically, the world turns to CNN Digital in massive numbers the day after Election Day, with users seeking to understand and engage with the results.
The live stream of CNN’s 2020 Election Night in America coverage saw 1.1 million concurrent viewers streaming at the 10:35pm peak on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3rd. CNN saw a total of 6.5 million unique live video viewers and 14 million live starts on CNN’s owned platforms (An unauthenticated live stream of CNN TV’s programming started at 9am ET on CNN.com, Edition.CNN.com, CNNgo on OTT apps & CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android and was not on auto-play).
CNN Election Night (8-11pm) saw an average audience of 859k users live streaming the average minute of coverage (equivalent to the way TV ratings are calculated), making it the #1 event on record for CNN and surpassing Election Day 2016 by +15%. TV plus digital live streaming produced a combined average audience of 9.944 million total viewers. Digital viewing added a +9.5% lift to CNN TV P2+ average audience for Election Day.
CNN’s Election Center saw a total of 11.2 million unique visitors on Election Day, with users averaging nearly 11 minutes time spent on site. Top features within the Election Center included the Presidential Results page, with 7 million unique visitors and averaged 13.3 minutes spent and the interactive Road to 270, which drove nearly 4 million unique visitors and averaged 12.3 minutes spent.
Election Day 2020 was also the biggest day ever for CNN’s live story, reaching 19 million unique visitors – up 60% from Election Day 2016.
The audio of CNN’s Election Night in America coverage also streamed on CNN’s channels on SiriusXM, Radio.com and TuneIn Radio.
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